Sister of the Serpent
by U. Scheherazade
Summary: Tom had a sister.Her name is Andromeda.This is her story.My first fic.Don't own Harry Potter
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter but JK does!!  
_July 13th, 1938, _

Dear Diary,

My name is Andromeda Riddle and I'm ten and a half years old. I have shoulder length, jet-black hair and green eyes, as does my brother, Tom. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm a girl and he's a boy, we would look almost identical (except his hair is much shorter than mine). Personally I hate having dark hair, green eyes and fair skin. I really don't think it's very becoming, but my ultimate complaint is that I'm a bit on the short side, unlike Tom who's kind of tall for his age.

For as long as we can remember, we've lived here at Madame Smith's Home for Orphaned Children. Mme. Smith has made it a point to tell us often (to anger us), that our mother died shortly after giving birth to us and that she lived only long enough to name us. This riles Tom up to the point of him having a vicious confrontation with her.

As for our father, we don't even know if he is alive or not. Whenever we ask Madame Smith about him, she always changes the subject. We know not to press our luck and keep asking her, as she is very authoritarian and commanding and would no doubt punish us. Her favorite form of punishment is making us go two weeks without dinner. Luckily, neither Tom nor I have done anything to receive such an infliction (in a while at least). One of her other prize punishments is making us girls practice the harp... I deeply detest playing it. Other than that, I really don't have much more to write about. Nothing interesting ever happens here at Madame Smith's.

It was a hot and uncomfortable summer night, just as every other day that summer had been, and that day was no different. Every day seemed like deja vu, ending and beginning the Tome. Unbeknownst to them, things would be changing soon... especially in the lives of two current residents.

Inside the brick, two-story orphanage situated just outside the small town of Little Hangleton, sat a small girl on her bed looking out onto the large moonlit lawn.

Taking a deep sigh, she focused her attention back to writing in her brand-new diary. Although technically it wasn't completely new - it had a few tears in its leather cover- it was still new to Andromeda. She found it earlier that evening sitting atop a pile of old newspapers that would have been trashed the very next morning. Snatching it, she tucked it inside her shirt and snuck it back up into the girl's side of the orphanage.

She made sure the other girls in her dorm were asleep; then, she took the diary out from inside her shirt and opened it up. The blank white pages inside showed no signs of use. They would be perfect for her to write in. Quietly grabbing a pencil from inside her bedside table, she began writing - or at least, she tried. Not one idea was coming to her as she sat there gazing at the blank pages, trying hard to think of something to write. She thought of writing about her day, but decided against it as she and her brother generally lived very boring lives at Madame Smith's. Furrowing her forehead, she racked her brain trying to think of something to write. Finally, she decided to write the date down: 'July 13th, 1938'. As if by magic, something clicked inside her head... she would write about herself, her brother, and her life.

Suddenly words came pouring out of her faster than she could write them down. When she stopped, she looked at what she had just written and sighed again. Realizing it was very late, she tucked her book underneath her pillow and laid back. Before she went to sleep, she closed her eyes and prayed her nightly prayer that she and her brother's life would change and they could leave the orphanage forever.

Little did Andromeda know, someone would answer her prayers so that her and her brother's life would soon change within a matter of days.

_July 15th, 1938,_

I received a very strange letter today. Normally, getting mail isn't anything spectacular to write about. Yet, seeing as how I never get mail, I thought it was weird. Who would be writing to me? Yet, what was even stranger was that the envelope had no return address.

---

Andromeda awoke that morning to find a snowy white owl pecking at her window. She gazed out it and saw the beautiful white bird carrying a letter in its beak. She sat up and gently opened the window, in hopes of not waking the others.

_I must be dreaming_, she thought groggily. Yet, she wasn't dreaming. The owl sailed over her bed and dropped the letter in her lap. As it turned to face her, it let out a small screech before flying off into the morning sky. Picking up the letter that it gave her, she turned it over and read:

Miss Andromeda E. Riddle

The bed by the window

Madame Smith's Home for Orphaned Children

Little Hangleton

She turned it back over and looked at the strange crest stamped onto the flap of the envelope. "Hogwarts?" she muttered, raising her eyebrows. Opening the envelope with her finger, she pulled out the letter inside.

Hogwarts School

_of_ Witchcraft _and_ Wizardry

Headmaster: Armando Dippet

(Order of Merlin, Second Class, Chf. Warlock)

Dear Miss Riddle,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore,

Deputy Headmaster

Andromeda had to read the letter twice. Obviously, this was someone's idea of a cruel joke.

_Really_, she scoffed. _Hogwarts? Witchcraft? Wizardry?_

It just didn't make any sense. Folding the letter back into the envelope, she tucked it underneath her pillow to hide it. She didn't want Madame Smith to find it, or any of the other girls for that matter. She didn't trust the other girls one bit, as they would have squealed to Madame Smith if they saw it. Andromeda shuddered at the thought of their daunting headmistress discovering the letter. She would have severely punished Andromeda for having something like that in her possession, as she had made it quite known that she disapproved of magic of any kind.

Later that morning after breakfast, Andromeda's brother, Tom, pulled her over into a vacant hallway. His hands were shaking and he looked scared as he pulled something out from his pant's pocket. It looked vaguely familiar, and then she realized what it was... the Hogwarts letter! _He must have gotten one, too_, she thought.

"Look what I got this morning," he exclaimed, motioning at the envelope and trying to keep his voice down. Andromeda took the letter and glanced at it.

"I got one of these too," she replied. "A pretty white owl delivered mine to me this morning. Personally, I think this is all just a hoax."

"I don't know about that," Tom whispered uncertainly. "Look here." He pulled out his letter and written at the botTom in small print read, "A Ministry employee will pay you a brief visit on July 15th."

"Oh my!" Andromeda exclaimed. Realizing she had raised her voice, she quickly lowered it and said, "Someone is going to be coming here regarding this letter... TODAY!"

"Bloody hell!" Tom exclaimed. "What should we do?"

Before Andromeda could reply, a familiar white-haired figure, wearing wire-rimmed glasses stood before them. It was Madame Smith. She had a stern look on her round, pudgy face as she addressed them. "Tom, Andromeda," she announced darkly, "please come to my office at once." They looked at each other and gulped. They just knew that they were going to be in loads of trouble.

With an acid feeling settling in their sTomachs, they reluctantly followed Madame Smith to her office -- which to them, felt like they were being led to some kind of death sentence. She opened the door and led them inside her insipid and uninspired main office.

"Mr. Nott, this is Tom and Andromeda Riddle. Children, this is Mr. Nott... from the _Ministry_," she announced with great disdain in her voice as she sat behind her desk. Mr. Nott stood up from the chair in which he was sitting and went to shake the children's hands. He had darkish brown hair which was slowly turning gray in some spots and was wearing a weird, loose-fitting outfit.

"It's a robe," he chuckled, observing Andromeda's strange glances at his clothes. "It's a pleasure to meet you two. I'm Morrison Nott, but you may call me Morris for short," he said with a friendly smile on his face. Tom and Andromeda both nervously replied "Hello" back to him.

"I'm going to assume that you've both received your letters, then?" he asked taking his seat again.

"You... you mean this one?" Tom shakily asked, pulling out the Hogwarts letter from his pocket.

"Yes, that would be the one. I presume you received yours as well, Andromeda?"

She glanced anxiously between Morris and Madame Smith, deciding what to say before grudgingly replying with a "Yes." Madame Smith shook her head disapprovingly, but with all her might, remained very quiet. Nobody said anything for a few seconds, leaving the room in an uncomfortable silence.

"I'm going to guess that you two probably have loads of questions, seeing as you were raised around Muggles and all," Tom remarked, breaking the silence in the room.

"Is this a joke?" Andromeda finally asked.

"What are 'Muggles'?" Tom added.

"What is Hogwarts?"

"Okay," Morris replied, holding up one hand. "One question at a time, please. First off, no, this isn't a joke. Secondly, a Muggle is simply someone who ceases to posess any magical ability. Thirdly, Hogwarts is the greatest school of witchcraft in the world. It's where you'll be going once we've taken care of all the necessary details." Tom chuckled, and with a wry smile he added, "When I was first given the assignment, they told me the two kids I was going to be in charge of were named Riddle. Thinking back, I really didn't believe it would be you two."

Tom and Andromeda looked at him inquisitively. "What do you mean by that?" they asked as one.

Tom opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment Madame Smith interrupted him.

"You know, I do believe that an agreement was made when the children were born, in case this little... eventuality should come about." Morris looked at Madame Smith then at the two Riddle kids who were extremely curious and eyeing him intently.

"Yes... I do remember hearing something about that agreement," he replied, rubbing his chin. "It was all the talk in the Ministry when it first came about ten years ago. I had only recently begun working there, so any classified Ministry information like that was generally kept from me. Nevertheless, as the years went by, I did find out more about it."

"Find out about what?" Andromeda asked. "What type of arrangement was made when we were born?"

Madame Smith sat up stiff in her chair before speaking. "I am not at liberty to divulge specific details about the circumstances of your births. However, I can say is that if the time came when you two would receive your... letters, I would receive payment for it and they would pay your tuition to that... school, as well."

"You... you mean you knew about us being different all along?" Andromeda enquired, completely taken aback. Madame Smith inhaled deeply and remained deathly quiet, but they could see a deep look of vexation in her eyes. Sensing the slight hostility in the room, Tom cleared his throat and stood up. "I guess this settles everything for now. Would you two like to come to Diagon Alley with me Tomorrow?"

"What is Diagon Alley?" Tom asked.

"Diagon Alley is where you'll find all the things you'll need for going to Hogwarts. Robes, wands, cauldrons, spell books, and all sorts of other things," Morris answered.

_Robes? Wands? Cauldrons? Spell books?_

"But we don't have any money to buy these things," Tom stated.

"Not to worry," Tom continued with another chuckle. "We'll take care of everything in due course of time. That is if Madame Smith will allow you two to go, of course."

They glanced over at Madame Smith who was busy scribbling something on a piece of paper and muttering to herself every so often.

"Fine, fine. Whatever," she replied briskly, waving her free hand swiftly in the air. Andromeda tried to see what her headmistress was writing, but she couldn't make it out.

"Just one other question, please," Andromeda asked, turning to face Morris.

"Certainly," he replied.

"This new _gift_ of ours, did we inherit this from our parents?"

"Only from your mother, I'm afraid," he answered solemnly. Andromeda merely nodded and watched as Morris waved good-bye to them and left the office. 


	2. Chapter 2

_July 16th, 1938,  
Morris is coming here again today. He will be taking us to Diagon Alley to help us buy our school things. This is quite exciting, I must say._

Tom is nervous about going, I can tell. He keeps pacing the main entranceway, waiting for Morris to arrive. I am nervous, too, but I find writing helps me calm my nerves. The other kids are becoming suspicious of us, wondering what we're up to, but Mme. Westyn made us promise not to say anything to them about our recently discovered abilities. She said she would 'take care of everything'.

--

Morris arrived at the orphanage at a quarter past ten that morning. He had just sprinted through the massive front lawn and was quite significantly out of breath when he reached the kids.

"I'm very sorry about being late, but I had to make a quick stop at the Ministry before coming here," he panted. "Are... Are you two ready to go then?" he gasped as he slowly regained his composure. Tom and Andromeda nodded.

"Let's be on our way, then."

It was a hot and uncomfortable summer day. No sooner had they reached the middle of the lawn, they had already broken into perspiration.

"Wow, it sure is hot today," Andromeda sighed, wiping the beads of sweat forming on her brow with the back of her hand. Up ahead Tom sauntered off, proud of the fact that soon they wouldn't be living under Madame Westyn's roof for nine whole glorious months. Luckily, relief from the head was nearby; sitting in the driveway was a large black car. 

"We'll be traveling in this today," Morris announced.

He opened the back door and Andromeda and Tom climbed into the backseat. Boy, was it was roomy! What was even more inviting was that it felt so good to be out of the agonizing heat.

Once he made sure they were comfortably seated in the back, Morris got in the drivers side and started the car. Tom and Andromeda looked out the windows and watched the orphanage get smaller and smaller as they drove away.

"Where are we going?" Tom probed as Morris sped down the narrow, dirt road.

"To London," he replied cheerfully.

"But I thought we were heading to Diagon Alley?" Tom wondered aloud, fidgeting in his seat slightly.

"We are, but to get to Diagon Alley, we have to go through London," he answered. "You may not know this, but many things in the wizarding world are neatly hidden inside the Muggle world, unbeknownst to them."

"How do Muggles keep from finding these places, then?"

"It's quite simple really. Anti-Muggle charms and spells are used. If a Muggle gets too close to a wizard place, the spell will make the Muggle suddenly remember a doctor's appointment he had, although he never had one with which to begin. They'll leave the place and eventually forget all about it. Even Hogwarts has charms on it. To an outsider it just looks like an old, abandoned and ramshackle castle, while inside it's an altogether different story."

Tom remained quiet for a moment before asking, "How much longer is it to London?"

"Er, about two hours, give or take."

Bursting with anxiety, those two hours seemed like eternity to Tom and Andromeda. When they finally reached the city, they sat up in their seats. This was the first time they had ever seen London up close and they wanted to get a good view of it. All the tall buildings, the sights, and the sounds — it was simply amazing to them! For most of the trip through the city, their faces were glued to the windows.

"We'll be there before long," Morris noted, reading the impatience on each of the children's faces. "Only if it weren't for this bloody traffic," he muttered darkly. Eventually he drove down a busy street and parked the car.

"Why are we stopping here?" a befuddled Andromeda asked as the car had now stopped in front of a dilapidated building.

"You'll see," he replied simply. The three of them got out of the car and walked up to the boarded-up door. 

Morris looked around over his shoulder, and upon seeing that nobody was paying any attention to him or the kids, he pulled out his wand and tapped it on the door. Slowly it began to creak open... Tom and Andromeda stared at the door, each wondering what was on the other side of it.  
"C'mon in, you two," he beamed, waving his hand at them. They slowly walked through the darkened doorway and into...

"Ouch! Tom, you klutz! You just stepped on my foot!" yelped Andromeda.

"Hey! It's not like I can see where I'm going!"

"Are you kids okay?" Morris asked.

"Fine," Andromeda muttered.

Up ahead, a dim, yellowish light reflected off the walls beside them. They could barely see Morris as they continued moving along the dark corridor, the dim light slowly getting brighter as they went on. Eventually they could see the outline of Morris much more clearly. He walked through another doorway and into a large cavernous room.

"Welcome to The Leaky Cauldron!" he announced grandly. The children looked around in awe.

On that particular day, the place was brimming with people. In some spots, there was hardly any room for the people to move around.

"Wow," squeaked Tom. "By the looks of it, it seems like everyone else picked today to do their school shopping, as well," he noted, observing people walking by and carrying bags brimming with all sorts of things in their hands. Further in the Leaky Cauldron stood a man with grayish hair wiping out a glass mug behind the counter. The bartender looked up to see who had just entered the pub. A smile crept onto his face when he saw who it was.

"Hello Morris!" he exclaimed jovially.

"Why, hello, Xavier," he replied. Morris turned to face the children and said, "I'll be back in a bit, I promise. If you two want to go exploring, go ahead, but just don't go outside." With a quick pat on their backs, he headed over to see his friend, Xavier. Deciding to follow his advice, the two kids went about exploring this new and interesting place.

"I see the Ministry has you babysitting now," Xavier joked as Morris joined him at the counter.

"Very funny, Xavier," Morris replied with a grin on his face. "I'm just helping these kids get ready for Hogwarts. Say, do you remember a Marguerite Morreaux?" he whispered the last part, nodding his head back at Tom and Andromeda.

"You mean those children," Xavier questioned, nudging his head in Tom and Andromeda's direction, "are related to her?" Morris nodded his head in agreement.

"I've heard through the grapevine that their mother was a descendant of one of the four Hogwarts founders. Salazar Slytherin, I believe."

"Marguerite? Really?" Xavier gasped. "I never would have imagined her to be related to Slytherin. Such a delightful and smart lady she was. Quite skilled at Legilimency, too," he sighed. "Don't know what she ever saw in the retched Muggle. Heard rumors he wasn't a very pleasant person."

Morris nodded again. "Naturally, I was completely shocked to hear that she had passed away, but I never knew she left behind two newborn children... until recently, of course." Xavier shook his head forlornly.

"I assume they've been living with their father, then?" he asked.

As Morris opened his mouth to speak, a loud crashing sound came from behind them. "Abby, how could you?" a woman exclaimed from across the room. Morris and Xavier whirled around and saw a teenage girl with bright red hair standing next to a broken jug on the floor. 

"I'm so sorry. It just slipped out of my hands," the girl replied.

An older woman, with red hair, as well, pulled out her wand and pointed it at the broken jug. "_Reparo_." The broken shards flew into the air and placed themselves back together. A few tables down from where this took place, Andromeda watched the fiasco with extreme amazement. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the broken jug was whole again.

"Tom, isn't the wizarding world simply amazing?" she asked. After a few moments with no response, she grew worried. "Right, Tom?" She turned around and saw he wasn't there. "Tom?" she called out. Looking around, she spotted Tom on the other side of the pub. "There you are!" she exclaimed, running over to meet him. "I was talking to you, or at least I thought I was! I thought you were still with me."

"Sorry, Andromeda, I just wanted to look at these posters here." He pointed to a bunch of 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' posters hanging haphazardly on the wall. "Besides," he quipped, "I thought you were quite good at talking to yourself."

Andromeda slapped him upside the head. "Ha, ha, ha," she retorted sarcastically.

"Seriously, though, I just heard something really interesting while I was over here," Tom began, leaning closer to Andromeda, his eyes aglow with excitement. "Apparently -"

"There you two are!" Morris exclaimed, suddenly appearing behind Andromeda. "I best be going now, Xavier," he said facing his friend. "Got a busy day ahead of me."

After saying good-bye, he led the two kids out into a small, grassy courtyard behind the pub. Tom never got a chance to tell Andromeda what he found so fascinating. 

"Prepare to be amazed, young lad and lassie," Morris told them as he walked up to a large brick wall. He pulled his wand out and tapped on the bricks. Magically they began to shift around, eventually forming a brick archway. Just ahead, on the other side of the archway, was a small town where all sorts of witches and wizards were drifting about.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," he announced. Tom and Andromeda slowly walked under the stone archway and into the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley. Tom and Andromeda's mouths were gaping open as they looked around at the different stores. There were so many places to go to, neither of them knew where to begin.

"Before we embark on our journey, we'll need to stop and get some money," Morris stated. "So, our first stop today will be Gringott's."

"What is Gringotts?" asked Andromeda.

"Gringotts is a wizard's bank. Unlike your Muggle banks, Gringotts is run entirely by goblins. No safer place to store your valuables as one would have to be really foolish to try and rob them. Goblins are very territorial when it comes to gold... they've been known to get extremely violent over it," Morris replied. Tom and Andromeda exchanged apprehensive glances.

As Morris lead them through Diagon Alley, Andromeda tried to imagine what Gringott's would be like. She was uneasy about going, but a part of her was fascinated by the thought of meeting a goblin. She had never seen one before, except in books.

Once inside the bank, Andromeda looked around, taking in the view. "Look at all the goblins," she whispered in astonishment to Tom, whose eyes were just as wide as hers.

"I sure wouldn't want to anger any of them," he answered quietly, eyeing them intently as they walked by.

Up ahead at one of the counters, Morris was already in conversation with a goblin. "I would like to make a withdraw from the Riddle vault," he said, groping around inside his robe pocket, eventually pulling out something small and shiny. "I have the key for it right here." He placed it on the desk in front of the goblin.

"Follow me, please," the goblin said in a monotonous voice.

Andromeda looked over at Tom. "We have our own vault?!" she whispered, taken by surprise. Tom shrugged. He was speechless. The goblin stepped down from behind the desk and led them into a room barely lit by the lantern.

"Please board the trolley and keep your arms tucked inside." Morris boarded the train, but Andromeda and Tom held back.

"We're supposed to go on that?" Tom demanded, pointing at the trolley.

"Yes," Morris declared. "This is how we get to your vault." Reluctantly, Tom got on board, followed by an uncertain Andromeda. The last to get on was the goblin.

"Please stay seated while the trolley is moving."

The trolley slowly lurked along until... "Hold on for dear life, kids!" Morris ordered. The trolley had picked up speed and was sailing through the dark cave at an exceptionally fast pace.

"Wicked!" Tom exclaimed. He was obviously enjoying the ride, but Andromeda on the other hand thought differently.

_Please don't let me get sick_, she begged. She slumped down in her seat, hoping the ride would be over with before long. Luckily for her, it ended almost instantly. Unfortunately, when the goblin pulled the lever to stop the trolley, Morris, Tom, and Andromeda went tumbling forward in it.

"Here we are," the goblin announced. "Vault one hundred and fifty."

Morris got off the trolley first, followed by Tom. "That was an incredible ride!" exclaimed Tom. "Wasn't it, Andromeda?" He turned around and saw Andromeda slowly crawling out of the trolley.

"Don't even say it," she said briskly as she walked by him.

Tom just gave her a big, sly grin. "Moi?" he asked innocently. Fortunately, she had her back to him as she rolled her eyes and uttered a sigh.

"Here you go, sir," spoke the goblin. The goblin had opened the vault door and sitting inside was a mountainous heap of gold coins. The way the light from the goblin's lantern reflected off of the gold made it even more beautiful to behold. As Tom and Andromeda stared at it, their jaws nearly hit the floor. They had gold... piles and piles of it. For being unwanted orphans, they were very well off.

"Bet you guys didn't know you were that wealthy, huh?" Morris asked.  
He took a small bag out from inside his gray robe and started filling it with the gold coins. "This should suit the purpose," he said once he filled the bag a good amount of the way up. Morris made his way back over to the trolley and sat down, Tom and Andromeda closely following behind him.  
The trolley sped up, but Andromeda didn't flinch. Her mind was still preoccupied on the vault filled with gold. She was a very wealthy little girl... a wealthy _orphaned_ little girl.

They eventually made their way back outside into the bright, but very hot, summer day. "We've got a lot of places to go to today," Morris announced. "Are you two up for the trek?" The kids nodded.

For a great deal of the day, Morris, Tom, and Andromeda ran around Diagon Alley purchasing the required things they needed for Hogwarts. As a special surprise for them, Morris had bought them each an owl as an "early birthday gift."

The last thing on the list they needed to buy was a wand.

"You'll need to go to Ollivander's for that," Morris told them. He took them over to Ollivander's shop and led them inside. "If you don't mind, I'll just be waiting outside," he told them. Morris left the shop, but stood next to a window so Tom and Andromeda could still see him.

"Hello," a strange voice called out. They turned around and saw an older gentleman coming out from the back. He had dark grayish hair and large, gazing eyes. "How may I help you two?"

"We need to buy a wand," Andromeda answered.

"Are you right handed or left?" he asked.

"Right." Both Tom and Andromeda replied in unison.

The tape measure began to move magically as it measured Andromeda and Tom's arm length. When it was done, it fell to a heap on the floor and the man headed into the back. He returned a few minutes later carrying a dozen or so boxes in his arms. He opened one of them and handed a dark colored wand to Andromeda.

"This is fourteen and a quarter inches. It's made of rose wood and its core is from the mane of a unicorn," he said. Andromeda took the wand from him and looked at it. "Give it a wave," he advised her. She flicked her wrist and a cold burst of air came through.

"Hmm, not that wand," he muttered to himself. He placed the wand back in it's box and handed her another one. "This one is a combination of cherry and maple wood. Thirteen and a quarter inches and with dragons' heartstring for a core."

Andromeda took this wand and gave it a wave. A large stack of books fell off a nearby counter. "Erm... not quite... try this one," he said. "It's red cedar and oak, twelve and a quarter inches. This one is made with a phoenix feather."

The moment her hand touched this one, a soft, warming sensation went through her body. A gentle breeze blew and gleaming white sparks shot out of the wand. "I believe this is the right one for you," he smiled at her. He took her wand and wrapped it up to protect it. When he finished, he turned to face Tom. 

"This is fourteen inches, made of mahogany, with a unicorn hair for the center." Tom took the wand and gave it a wave, but nothing happened. "Try this one," he told him. "It's fifteen inches, made of ebony, and made with a phoenix talon core." Tom gave it a wave and a burst of energy shot through the store, knocking over some empty wand boxes.

"No, alright," Mr. Ollivander said. He went to put it away when he saw that he had another box that hadn't been opened. _No_, he thought. _Not that one, unless..._

He handed Tom the other wand, and just like Andromeda's, a warm sensation ran through him, but then suddenly turned icy cold as greenish colored sparks flew out. The man looked at Tom intently. "Interesting," he said. "That is a yew wand, thirteen and a half inches and made with a phoenix feather center."

"Like Andromeda's?" Tom asked.

"Yes... and no," he replied. "You both have a phoenix feather in your wands, but the phoenix feather in your sister's wand came from a different bird than what's in yours."

The man took the yew wand and wrapped it up like he had done with Andromeda's. Andromeda gave the man the required amount of money to buy the wands. After they purchased them, Tom and Andromeda went outside and met back up with Morris.

"Did everything go okay in there?" he asked. Tom and Andromeda nodded.

"I got a red cedar and Tom got a yew wand," she replied.

"Yeah, and we've both got a phoenix feather core... whatever that's for," Tom added.

"The phoenix feathers are your wands' power source," Morris explained. "You know, before we go I'd like to treat you guys to an ice cream sundae from Fortescue's over there. She makes the best ice cream sundaes around." He guided them over to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and ordered three of her famous ice cream sundaes. 

"Thank you very much for the ice cream," Andromeda said once they had finished eating a little while later. 

"Yes, thanks," Tom added.

"You're both very welcome," he replied. "I kind of figured orphanage food probably don't taste very good."

"No, it doesn't. I imagine that cardboard would taste better than what Madame Westyn serves us," Tom quipped. Andromeda spit out the bit of ice cream she had in her mouth and laughed.

After Morris paid for the three sundaes, they left Diagon Alley and the exciting wizarding world behind. Tom and Andromeda were soon back to their uninteresting, unexciting, and just generally unhappy lives at the orphanage. Neither one could wait to leave to go to Hogwarts. The thought of a Madame Westyn-free nine months was almost intoxicating.

Andromeda glanced at Tom, and a devious smile slowly crept onto her face. Tom understood what she was thinking and returned the sly grin.

Over a month had passed and soon the big day had finally come for them to go to Hogwarts. Tom and Andromeda waited with bated breath by the entryway windows, watching for that oh-so-familiar black car to come and take them away. Before they knew it, they saw him pulling up in front of the orphanage.

"How exactly do we get there?" Andromeda probed as they drove through London.

"From Kings' Crossing. From there, you'll board the train from platform nine and three-quarters," Morris replied.

"_Nine and three-quarters?_" Tom repeated incredulously. "There's no such thing as that!"

"You'll see when we get there," Morris replied with a smile.

He drove them to the station, and then helped unload their suitcases from the car into separate trolleys. "Follow me," he instructed them. He led the children through the station until he came to a brick wall separating platforms nine and ten. Morris looked around and saw that no one was nearby.

"The trick," he began, "is to pass through this wall. It'll take you right into platform nine and three-quarters." After that, he gave the children their trolleys. "If you're concerned about going through, you can always get a bit of a running start."

Andromeda took a few steps backwards, making sure to give herself a good distance for running. "First, make sure nobody is around," Morris instructed. Andromeda looked behind her and to both her sides; there was no one in sight. Taking a deep breath, she got a firm grip of the trolley and ran straight for the brick wall. A normal person who might have witnessed this would have wondered if this ten-year-old girl was completely mental for running into a solid brick wall. 

Running through the wall felt like she was treading through water. When she emerged on the other side, she saw there were crowds of people around.

Pushing her trolley onward, she made her way through the multitude of people and eventually stopped in front of the massive train. _The Hogwarts Express_, she said aloud in her mind, reading the name plaque on the train. She took in all of the sites and sounds, watching as people breezed by her in differently colored robes.

_C'mon, Tom, where are you?_ Suddenly a familiar voice called out her name. Tom was coming through the same way she had, pushing his own trolley. Following closely behind him was Morris.

"Now, children, I cannot follow you onto the train so we'll have to depart here," Morris said, with a hint of unhappiness in his voice. "Make sure you take your suitcases and owls on the train with you, but don't worry about taking them off. Someone will pick them up and make sure they're delivered right to you."

"Good-bye, Morris," Andromeda squeaked.

"We'll miss you," Tom added.

"I'll miss you both, too," Morris replied. "It was nice meeting you, kids."

He gave each a brief hug and was off on his way. Together, Tom and Andromeda wheeled their trolleys around to the front of the train. Picking up their suitcases and the cages that held their owls, they boarded the Hogwarts Express, ready to embark on the new and exciting part of their lives.


	3. Chapter 3

_September 1st, 1938,  
This is my first night here at Hogwarts. It's quite a chilling place - all dark and gloomy - not to mention that with all the twists and turns, one can become very lost. On top of it, we had to take a scary boat ride over the lake to get here, but overall, it is much, much better than being in that retched orphanage._

So far I don't know how Tom is handling the change, as we got sorted into different houses. I was sorted into Gryffindor, and he into Slytherin.

Here is my account of what happened during the sorting ceremonies: They ordered all of us First years to stand in front of the Great Hall, and when they called your name, you'd walk up to where an old stool and a decrepit hat waited. A wizard with auburn hair began placing the hat on the students, in which it would call out a house for each of them.

As the wizard read the students names off the list alphabetically, I knew it would take awhile for Tom and I to get called, so we patiently waited. He whispered into my ear how he hoped the hat placed him in a "respectable" house.

Eventually they made their way to the "R's" and we knew our turn would be coming up momentarily. His odd comment still befuddled me as I heard my name being called...

--

"Riddle, Demetra," the wizard announced. A small girl with long dark hair made her way up to the chair and the wizard placed the tattered hat on her head, the brim of it slipping down past her eyes. The hat began to speak in her ear...

"Hmm, interesting, yes. An intelligent one, I see... yet, also brave. Hmm... difficult, very difficult... Where should I place you? Better be..."  
"GRYFFINDOR!" it shouted aloud.

The auburn-haired wizard took the hat off her head as she ran over to the Gryffindor house table. Everyone there gave her a small round of applause as she took her seat among her new fellow house mates.  
Once she settled in, the ceremony recommenced.

"Riddle, Thomas," the old wizard called out as he continued to read aloud from the long parchment he held in his hands. Demetra turned around in her seat and watched as her brother got up onto the stool and the hat was placed on his head.

"Not a bad mind... but a need to prove yourself," the old hat muttered into his ear. After that, it said nothing more for an exceedingly long time, only mumbling a few "hmms" occasionally. Tom's lips appeared to be moving, as if he were talking to the hat.

_I wish I could read lips_, she thought. 

Finally, after an excruciatingly long time, the hat spoke again to him. "There's only one choice for you, then... "  
"SLYTHERIN!" it yelled out, echoing around the Great Hall.

Cheers went up from the Slytherin table as Tom made his way over to them. Demetra was stunned. She was so sure her brother would be placed in the same house as herself. Being in a strange new place, she didn't want to be separated from her only remaining family. Sighing, she stayed quiet throughout the rest of the sorting ceremony.

When the hat finished sorting the rest of the First years, the feast began. All the other First years seated at her table were clamoring around and making noise - all except Demetra. One Fifth year girl sitting across from Demetra noticed how extremely quiet she was.

"Are you alright?" enquired a girl with long red hair, which she wore in a braid. Demetra looked up at the girl and merely nodded.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to be separated from my brother."

The red headed girl looked around the table and scratched her chin. "Was your brother Thomas Riddle? The one whom the Sorting Hat put into... _Slytherin_?" she asked, scrunching up her nose.

Demetra nodded again and inquired, "I wonder why would the hat sort us into different houses?"

"I don't know," the red-haired girl replied. "The Sorting Hat must have seen something in your brother in order to place him in Slytherin. Poor thing."

"What do you mean by 'poor thing'?"

The girl leaned in closer to Demetra and whispered, "Slytherins don't get along that great with us Gryffindors... or any other house for that matter. Slythern House has a bit of a reputation for turning out the most dark wizards ever." Demetra gulped. This was not what she wanted to hear... her brother being influenced by the dark side.

"By the way, my name's Abby. Abby Bones. What's yours?" she asked cheerfully, changing the subject.

"Demetra Riddle."

"This person," Abby said pointing over to a boy stuffing his face with food, "this gluttonous creature here is Peter Longbottom. He and I are school Prefects, which is just a fancy term for school monitors. If you have questions or anything, just give one of us a hoot and we'll help in any way we can."

Abby then introduced her to some of the others at the table. "There's Minerva McGonagall, Hannah Evans, Markus Johnson, Carl Potter, Aaron Wood, Sarah Spinnet, Maria Bell, and this here is Chris Pettigrew." Demetra shyly waved to them.

"So," Demetra asked, looking over at the front table of the Great Hall, "who are they?"

"They're the teachers," Abby replied. "You see the person in the middle, the one with the wispy white hair? He's Professor Dippet, the Headmaster."

When the feast was over with, Professor Dippet stood up and addressed the school. "Mr. Maugi, our groundskeeper would like to stress that he takes very serious care to keep the school clean and if anyone is caught dragging in mud, or in some other way, shape, or form, dirtying the school, they will be swiftly reprimanded. Let us now turn in and get a good nights rest. We want to be refreshed for our first day of school tomorrow."

Once his speech was completed, Abby and Peter rounded up the First years and lead them through the castle, up to the Gryffindor common room. Unfortunately, as they were leaving the Great Hall, Demetra wasn't able to catch a glimpse of her brother.

They walked up many long and winding staircases and through hallways until they reached a portrait of a large lady in a pink dress.

"Password?" she asked.

"Caput Draconis," Abby replied.

The painting swung open to reveal a concealed opening. Abby was the first one to go in, then Peter, followed by the rest of the students.

All the First years gasped in astonishment at the size of the common room. It was roomy and spacious.

"If you follow the stairs," Abby instructed, "they'll take you to your dormitories. Girls' rooms are on the left, boys' to the right. All of your suitcases should be here, if not... you're outta luck!" She gave a small laugh. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding," she continued, noticing the frightened looks on some of the First years faces.

Demetra followed the other First year girls to the top of the stairs and into the girls' dormitories. There she found a large, four-poster bed by a window that she just had to have. After she claimed it, she settled down into the soft, comfy covers and instantly began to doze off. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep, but she was awakened by whispering. Slowly opening her eyes a bit, she saw two girls leaning over her bed.

"Is it true? Your brother got put in Slytherin?" one of them asked. Demetra opened her eyes the rest of the way, and with the moon providing a tiny amount of light, she could make out the face of a blond-haired girl.

"Yes," she replied darkly.

The girl giggled then whispered something to another girl who was sitting up in her bed right behind her.

"What's so funny about it?" Demetra demanded as she sat straight up in her bed. The blond-haired girl looked ashamed and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. I just find it quite interesting that your brother was placed in a different house than you. My mum has a brother and she told me the hat sorted them into Gryffindor together. She declared that generally as rule, brothers and sisters are placed together into the same house."

Demetra stared intently at the girl for a moment before responding, "Really? I didn't know that."

"Do you come from a wizarding family or are you Muggle-born?" the girl inquired.

Demetra thought about that for a second before answering back. "Just our mother was a witch. So, I don't know what that would make us precisely."

"That would make you a half-blood," the blond-haired girl answered. "Was your dad surprised when your mum told him about being a witch?" 

"Can't say," Demetra replied. "We don't know if our father is alive or not. Our mother died not too long after my brother and I were born. She lived only long enough to name us. After that, we were sent to live in an orphanage."

"Oh! I... uh, didn't know that you... um, lived in an orphanage and that your mum died," the girl said, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

"It's all right," Demetra replied, noticing the girl's reddening face.

The girl looked at Demetra and through the moonlight, she saw her smile. "My name is Sophie Prewett. This here is Marcella Thomas." The other girl stepped forward and Demetra saw that she had dark hair and chocolate-colored skin.

"My name is Demetra Riddle."

Suddenly someone poked their head into their dorm and announced, "Okay, it's time for all good First year girls to go to sleep." Demetra recognized the voice as belonging to Abby. The three girls laughed and replied, "Yes, Abby."

Sophie and Marcella climbed into their respective beds and lay down. Demetra lay back down and grinned. She had finally made a friend. Not just one, but two. She felt exceptionally cheerful.

As she lay there, Demetra didn't feel sleepy at all, in fact, she was excited. She leaned over her bed and pulled out her small book and pencil from her suitcase and began writing in the moonlight.

_September 1st, 1938  
As I left the common room for breakfast today, Marcella and Sophie walked with me the whole way to the Great Hall. I was grateful for that as I didn't want to be alone. Being a newcomer, I didn't want to stand out like a sore thumb._

Upon entering the Great Hall, I immediately began searching for Tom. I scanned through the Slytherin table and saw him sitting next to two boys who were laughing hysterically over something. Tom sat there, watching them, looking so lonely... and so left out.

While the other Gryffindors were settling down at our table, I thought I would go over there and try talking to him.

--

"Hey Tom!" Demetra greeted. She saw an unoccupied spot next to her brother and plopped down next to him. "I didn't see you last night after the feast so I wasn't able to talk to you."

Tom looked around nervously and replied, "Hi, Demetra. What did you want to talk to me about?"  
Demetra never got the chance to respond as a Slytherin Prefect came over and barked, "What's a Gryffindor doing here at the Slytherin table?"

"I... was... just... talking to my brother," Demetra answered nervously, looking up at the person before her.

"Well, just so you know, we don't allow any _Gryffindors_ here at the Slytherin table."

Demetra glanced over at the Gryffindor table and saw Abby getting up and walking over, her face grim.

"Stephane, please leave Demetra alone. She was merely visiting her brother, no need to get all defensive over it."

"Tom! You didn't tell us you had a sis in Gryffindor!" Stephane exclaimed, ruffling up Tom's hair.

"It just didn't come up," he said quietly while trying to fix his mussed up hair. He turned to Demetra and whispered, "Sorry about that. We can talk after class."

Demetra got up and followed behind Abby back over to the Gryffindor table. There, the other students met them with all sorts of curious looks. "I was just talking to my brother," she said and the inquisitive looks slowly faded from their faces.

"Who was that person?" Demetra asked, to which Abby replied, "Stephane Lestrange. Biggest prat in the entire school."

Breakfast, thankfully, took her mind off of Stephane. Pancakes and waffles with butter and syrup made her smile as she sat beside Sophie.

Once breakfast was finished, Demetra asked what their first classes of the day were.

"Oh! Thank you for reminding me!" Abby exclaimed as she smacked her palm to her forehead. She reached inside her robes and pulled something out. It was a small stack of papers. "These are your class schedules," she announced as she handed each student the piece of paper. When she handed Demetra her schedule, she looked down at the list. It didn't seem too bad for the first day.

"Yuck!" Sophie exclaimed, breaking her concentration. "We have Transfiguration with the Slytherins!" Demetra scanned down at her list again and noticed that Transfiguration was their first class of the day. Marcella, who was sitting across from Demetra, also looked every bit as revolted as Sophie.

"Welcome class, to Transfiguration. My name is Professor Dumbledore," said the wizard with the long auburn hair. Demetra recognized him as the same wizard who was placing the sorting hat on the First years during the ceremonies the night prior.  
"Good morning, Professor Dumbledore," chimed the class as they walked into his classroom.

The classroom had been divided into two: one side for the Gryffindors, the other for the Slytherins. Demetra, Sophie, and Marcella grabbed three seats together toward the front of the classroom. Once they sat down, she looked over at the other side and noticed that Tom was sitting not far from her.

"Transfiguration," began Dumbledore, "is a difficult subject to learn. It takes much practice to learn to do it precisely. Take this feather, for example. If I wanted to transfigure it into a pincushion, what do I have to do?" He looked around the classroom waiting for a response. Slowly, Demetra raised her hand.

"You'd need a wand," she answered nervously.  
Dumbledore smiled gently and replied, "Yes, the most important thing in transfiguration is a wand. Five points to Gryffindor."

Sophie and Marcella nudged Demetra and whispered excitedly. "Also," continued Dumbledore, "you need to concentrate very hard on what it is you want to transfigure." He pulled out his own wand and transfigured the feather into a beautiful pincushion This equally amazed both the Gryffindors and Slytherins.

Dumbledore transfigured the pincushion back and set it on his desk. "Would anyone here like to try it?" Someone from the Slytherin side got up and headed to the feather... it was Tom.

"Now before you begin, try going through the arm movements," Dumbledore instructed. "A gentle glide of your wrist and tap the object. It's very simple." He turned and placed the feather right in front of Tom.

"Says you," Tom muttered, causing the Slytherins to place their hands over their mouths to keep from laughing out loud.

Dumbledore looked Tom squarely in the eyes and said, "Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class, Mr. Riddle?" Tom shook his head no.

"Alright. Now, remember what I told you: a gentle glide then tap the object." 

Tom stared fixedly at the feather, almost as if he were attempting to transfigure it with his mind instead of his wand. This lead to some heavy snickering from the Gryffindors.

"Remember, Tom, a gentle glide of your wand and make sure to tap it," Dumbledore quietly reminded him. Tom pulled out his wand and followed his advice. He tapped the feather just like Dumbledore instructed him to, but suddenly smoke began to appear from out of nowhere. It started filling the room and everyone inside began to hack and cough. Dumbledore raised his wand and with a twirl, he cleared the smoke away.

"Not bad for your very first tr--," he began, but stopped abruptly as he looked down at the table where a small pincushion lay. "Well, well, Mr. Riddle, it looks as if you got it. Congratulations, and twenty points to Slytherin," Dumbledore said cheerfully.

Those at the Slytherin side grinned and slapped Tom on the back, while everyone at the Gryffindor side stared, completely stunned and puzzled.

"He just got lucky," Demetra overheard Sophie whispering to Marcella.

When transfiguration class let out a little while later, Demetra held back so she could talk to her brother alone.  
"Well, that was certainly an interesting stunt you pulled today," she gibed, trying to poke a little fun at him. "Nearly choking half the class and the teacher to death..."

Tom frowned angrily at her and yelled defensively, "I didn't mean to do it on purpose! It was an accident!"  
Demetra gaped at her brother in disbelief. "Honestly, you can't take a joke can you?"

Tom shook his head. "Uh, yeah, whatever."

They didn't say any more until Demetra said, "At any rate, it was great that you could turn that feather into a pin cushion."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't too difficult."

_September 6th, 1938,  
They already regard Tom and me as the two smartest kids in class and we've only been here a week. Most unfortunate though, this has lead to some badgering and being called insulting names behind our backs._

Monday, Tom could transfigure a feather into a pin cushion in his first attempt... in only his very first class! Dumbledore said that he has yet to meet a First year student who could do that. It thoroughly impressed Dumbledore, to say the least.

Nevertheless, I bested Tom in Charms a few days later...

--

"Remember... it's just a simple swish, a flick of the wand and a tap of the object," Professor Ambley, a short and squatty woman, instructed. Everyone in class imitated the essential arm movement. "Now repeat after me," she announced, "Wingardium Leviosa." The whole class chorused, "Wingardum Levisa."

"No, no, no, it's not '_Wingardum Levisa_', it's _Wingardium LeviOHsa_."

The students chorused the line again and this time getting it right.

"Correct!" Professor Ambley said. "Now let's try it with a piece of parchment, shall we?" Professor Ambley passed each student a piece of parchment. "Remember the movements."

Demetra, who happened to be sitting next to Tom that day, watched him as he furiously tried to stab the parchment with his wand.

"No! You're doing it wrong," Demetra hissed. "You're not supposed to stab the paper... you might wind up hurting yourself! This is how you're supposed to tap it..." She showed him the swish and flick movement.

Tom looked at Demetra, looked at the Slytherins, then back to Demetra. An unreadable expression on his face, almost as if he was waiting for the Slytherins to start teasing him. "Fine!" he whispered. He went through the swish and flick motion, tapped the parchment and said, "_Wingardium Leviosaaa_!"

_Oh the humanity_, Demetra sighed.

After watching a few more of his pitiful attempts, she heaved a long and deep sigh. "Now you're saying it wrong. It's not Leviosaaa! It's LeviOHsa!"  
"You do it then if you're such a genius!" he shot back to her.

"Fine!" she answered. "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" The moment she said it, the parchment flew gracefully into the air.

"Look here everyone! Miss Riddle got it right!" Professor Ambley exclaimed. "Take ten points for Gryffindor!"

After doing a few loop-de-loops in the air for added effect, Demetra bought the parchment back down onto the desk and the rest of the Gryffindors applauded. Demetra turned and gave Tom a smug grin. He scowled at her as he rested his head in his hands.

Just as they were preparing to leave the classroom once Charms was over with, Demetra overheard one of the Slytherins saying in a sarcastic tone, "It's Levi_ohhhhhsa_! Not Levio_saaah_!" Demetra was offended. She glanced over at Tom, but he was hurrying out of the classroom, stuffing things into his bookbag as he left.

"We saw what you did in Charms! You were fantastic!" Marcella exclaimed.

"Yeah," Sophie agreed. "Nobody else could make their parchment fly!" 

"And add loop-de-loops," Marcella imparted. 

Demetra smile as her friends tried their best to cheer her up that night at dinner. She had to admit, that they were right about that much.

Demetra forced a modest smile onto her face. "Yeah, but you didn't hear what one of those awful Slytherins said about me. They said in a sarcastic tone of voice, 'Levioohhhhhsa', not 'Leviosaaah'! They were insulting me!"

"Pffft! Don't listen to them," Sophie grumbled, rolling her eyes. "The whole Slytherin house is made up of nothing more than a bunch of dumdums anyway."

"Well, hopefully all but one at any rate," Marcella quickly added, looking at Demetra. She knew exactly who her friend was talking about.

Poking her steak with her fork, she suddenly didn't feel very much like eating. Sighing, her stomach began to feel weird at that moment. A deep gurgle vibrated her innards. Covering her mouth with her hands, she felt like she was going to be sick.

Demetra saw one of the Slytherin girls muttering under her breath from the corner of her eye, but when she turned, the girl was eating like nothing had happened, so Demetra tried to go back to her dinner.

"Are you okay?" Marcella asked fearfully. Demetra couldn't open her mouth, if she did, she was most certain she would have thrown-up...

"**Buuuuurp**!" Her eyes went wide with embarrassment, though it was nothing compared to the blood she felt rush to her face as she ran out of the Great Hall amid howling laughter from the Slytherins.

Sprinting up to the common room, she quickly blurted out the password and ran into a dark corner sinking down into the shadows, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her.

"It wasn't _that_ bad!" Sophie comforted, later that evening once everyone had returned from dinner. Demetra narrowed her eyes and had a truly difficult time actually believing her.

"C'mon, please be honest with me!" she pleaded. "What happened when I left?" 

Sophie and Marcella looked nervously at one another. "Well...," Sophie began slowly, "one of the Slytherin girls called you the 'belch queen' but..."

"Ugh, I will _never_ set foot in there again!" she wailed, covering her face with her hands.

_September 12th, 1938,  
Thank the powers that be! Everyone seems to have forgotten about my little gas expulsion. Unfortunately, it took a few days, a few UNCOMFORTABLE days I should say, in the Great Hall for it to subside. I literally had to be dragged into the Great Hall by Sophie and Marcella that next morning for breakfast._

I am now going to try and shut that awful moment from my memory...

Today, we had our first flying lesson, and let me say... what an experience that was!  
---

"To grab a hold of your broom, just stand right beside it with your hand over it and yell 'UP'!" their teacher, a tall, lanky, gray-haired woman complete with steely eyes named Professor Hoach, ordered the students.

Demetra walked alongside her broom and yelled "UP!" like she was required to and the broom flew right into her hand. She looked around to see if anyone else had gotten their broom to rise. A few other students here and there had managed it, one of them being Tom. He grinned at her as he held his broom proudly in his hand. She grinned back as she held hers.

Glancing to her side, she saw that Sophie and Marcella were both having some problems with getting their brooms to rise.

"UP!" they yelled. Their brooms just flopped around on the ground. Finally, Marcella got hers to fly up in her hand. Sophie, meanwhile, was still having some issues with hers.

"Up. Up! UP!" she yelled. "Why won't this bloody thing go UP?!" At that moment the broom flew up... but it bypassed her hand entirely and whacked her in the face. Demetra and Marcella had to exercise their restraint to keep from snickering. Unfortunately a few giggles made their way out of their mouths.

"Shut up, you two," grumbled Sophie as she rubbed her head.

"Now that you have your brooms in hand, mount them and keep both your feet firmly on the ground. When I say 'go', gently push off, hover for a moment, then gently bring the broom back down," ordered Professor Hoach, marching in front of the students.

Demetra sat on her broom and gently pushed off the ground. As she did, a cool breeze blew through her hair. It was a marvelous feeling to fly. She felt so free and light she didn't want this feeling to end.

"Demetra, please bring the broom back down, now," their teacher ordered. The sound of her voice snapped Demetra out of her daydream and back to reality. "Just lean forward to bring the broom back down."

She gently leaned forward on her broom and the moment her feet hit the ground her euphoria was over. "Very good, Miss Riddle," complimented Professor Hoach. "Now," she said, facing the rest of the class, "let's see if anyone else can do what Miss Riddle just did."

The remaining students mounted their brooms and pushed off the ground. Unfortunately, only a few could others balance, the rest had to descend right away as they couldn't balance correctly on the broom.

"It's quite alright," the teacher said, walking back and forth between them. "Not many people can learn to balance on a broom on their first try." She looked approvingly around her class when suddenly she realized that something was wrong... someone in her class was missing! As she went around doing a quick head check on the students, it was then that Professor Hoach realized who it was.

"Mr. Riddle?!" she asked looking around for the lost student. Tom was sailing around the grounds of Hogwarts, totally in control of his broom. Professor Hoach looked up at Tom, her face set with anger.

"Mr. Riddle, get down here this insant!" she yelled. As Tom slowly began to bring the broom back down to the ground, he (feeling brave), decided to do a few loop-de-loops on his broom. On his second turn around, he lost his balance and the broom almost went speeding out from underneath him.

"HELP!" he screamed. All the students started clamoring and pointing at the spectacle.

"Hold on, Mr. Riddle!" Professor Hoach shouted. She pulled out her wand and exclaimed "Mobilicorpus!" Tom was ejected off the broom and drifted about lazily in midair. Professor Hoach slowly brought Tom back down to the ground. The moment his feet touched the grass, the teacher gave him a look that signified that he was in deep trouble.

"What do you think you were doing?" she admonished. "You could have been seriously injured... or worse! Fifteen points from Slytherin for that little stunt of yours!"

"But... but --" he objected. "I —"

**CRASH!**

Everyone looked around to see what had produced the racket. The broom that Tom was on just moments before had crashed to the ground and broke into many small pieces.

"Flying lessons are over with today," Professor Hoach sighed.


	4. Chapter 4

_September 15th, 1938,  
Things still haven't gotten any better between our two houses, not that I expected it to. I've been here long enough to know better than that. Abby told me that Slytherins and Gryffindors have been arch enemies for many centuries._

Because of the... uh... animosity between the two Houses, Tom and I thought it be best to meet in the library every day during the week after class to talk. It'll be much safer that way.

During our first meeting, we talked about anything that happened to come up. I told him I made two new friends and about all the things we've done together. Once I finished talking, he heaved a deep sigh and looked really unhappy. I asked him what was wrong...  
---

He remained quiet for a moment, then finally said, "They're not very welcoming in Slytherin. I have no friends of my own there. The older kids tease me about being not being a pure-blood. The rich kids tease me about being poor, and most of the remainder tease me about living in an orphanage."

He sighed again and Andromeda could see the electricity shoot through his green eyes. "I wish you could have been there my first night. A Seventh year Slytherin charmed all of the suits of armor leading down to the dungeons to brandish their weapons at me. I had to run across and try to avoid them just to make it to the common room. They said it was an 'initiation' of sorts, but none of the other First years went through it, just me... Damn it, Andromeda, I wish they would all just stop bothering me!" he shouted.

Madam Zuzellam, the librarian, looked up from across the room with an extreme look of dissatisfaction on her face. Andromeda was a bit taken aback by her brother's startling outburst.

Tom muttered "sorry" to Madam Zuzellam.

Andromeda felt awful at hearing how they were treating her brother. She decided right there to do something about it. "Let's go see Headmaster Dippet," she proposed. "Maybe you can switch houses and join Gryffindor."

Tom shook his head. "Nah, they'd never accept me there."

"We'll never know until we try. C'mon, let's go!" Andromeda said as she literally dragged Tom out of the library and into the Great Hall where dinner was just beginning. "But we'll have to wait until after dinner to talk to Professor Dippet."

Upon entering the Great Hall, Tom and Andromeda split up to join their respective tables. The chatter in the Great Hall met Andromeda's ears and made her smile. None of the other students paid any attention to her as she headed toward the Gryffindor table. This made her smile more. Everyone seemed to have long forgotten about her little gas expulsion

Just as Andromeda slid into her seat between Minerva McGonagall and Hannah Evans, and began reaching for a tray of shepard's pie, a tall girl yelled out from across the Slytherin table, "All hail the belch queen!"

_Obviously, someone hasn't FORGOTTEN about that_, she thought bitterly as she stuffed a fork full of food into her mouth.

Once dinner was finally over with, Andromeda watched Professor Dippet leave the table at the front of the Great Hall and head into a room adjoining the Great Hall.

In the crowd of students leaving, Andromeda met up with Tom and together they began following Dippet. They got halfway to the adjacent room when suddenly something blocked them.

"May I help you two with something?" Dumbledore asked looking down at the Riddle kids with a friendly twinkle in his piercing blue eyes. It was like he was trying to x-ray them.

Tom wasn't sure what to say to him, so he looked intently at Andromeda to answer. Andromeda got a weird sensation from the intense way he was looking at her... _Ask him_, he said. Only she could have sworn she didn't see his mouth move...

In the blink of an eye she looked away as a shiver went down her spine. Shaking her head, she replied, "Uh... we need to talk with Headmaster Dippet... it's important."

Dumbledore nodded and replied, "Is it anything I could help you with perhaps?"

"Well," Andromeda began with a deep sigh, "could we talk in private?"

"Certainly," Dumbledore answered. He led them into an unoccupied classroom and closed the door behind them.

"What do you need to talk about?" he asked, as he took the seat behind the teachers' desk. Andromeda settled herself into a seat in front of the desk and Tom did the same. He looked as if he was starting to have some serious doubts about this.

"You know that during the sorting ceremonies that Tom and I got placed in different houses, and well, Tom's not happy being in Slytherin. Nobody there is nice to him, and we were wondering if he could... uh... possibly transfer to Gryffindor," Andromeda said quickly. Dumbledore sat back in his chair and thought about it for a moment.

"Normally, we only allow students to change houses under the most extreme cases," he began, "and nothing of the sort has happened in many centuries. Something like this will have to be brought up with Headmaster Dippet. He will decide whether we should move your brother to Gryffindor... or another house for that matter."

Andromeda and Tom smiled at each other.

"Unfortunately," Dumbledore added gravely, "the Sorting Hat virtually never makes a mistake when placing a student."

Dumbledore got up and led them out of the vacant classroom and up to Headmaster Dippet's office. They stopped in front of a large stone gargoyle and Dumbledore gave him the password. "Baubles." The stone gargoyle moved out of the way to reveal a spiral staircase. Dumbledore got on the stairs, followed by Andromeda and Tom. These were like no other stairs they had ever seen or been on before. Slowly, they starting winding up and continued to do so until they reached the top where Dumbledore knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It is I," Dumbledore answered. "Tom and Andromeda Riddle would like to speak to you for a moment."

"Come on in," Dippet responded. Dumbledore opened the door and they walked in.

"Ah, hello there," Professor Dippet beamed. "So, you two are Tom and Andromeda Riddle," he said jovially. Squarely looking at Tom now, he said, "I remember you! You're the boy who had the longest sorting I've ever seen!" he laughed. "How may I help you?"

Andromeda told him the same story she had just told Dumbledore: about how Tom was not happy in Slytherin.

Professor Dippet remained quiet for a moment, thinking over the problem at hand. What Andromeda and Tom heard next was neither Dumbledore nor Dippet speaking.

"Perhaps you're wondering why I placed young Tom in Slytherin?" spoke a voice. Andromeda and Tom looked up and saw the old, frayed Sorting Hat sitting on the top shelf of Dippet's office.

"I placed him in the house that he'll most likely succeed in."

"But he isn't happy there," Andromeda pleaded.

"I saw his mind, and in it, I saw that he could achieve exceptional things."

Andromeda was becoming rightly exasperated with talking to the hat. She turned to Professor Dippet and said, "Surely you can do something, please?"

Headmaster Dippet looked at Andromeda and said gently, "I would love to be able to help you, but the Sorting Hat placed him there, and if that's where he's meant to be, then that's where he shall stay."

Andromeda nervously glanced over at Tom, who appeared to be on the edge of a tantrum. He took a deep breath and said through gritted teeth, "So that's it, right? _'I'm sorry? You're stuck?'_ That's it?"

"Tom, it's not..." Professor Dippet began.

"Yes," he hissed at him. He stormed out of the office with Andromeda lagging behind, trying to calm him down.

_September 30th, 1938  
It's been a hair more than two weeks now and Tom is grudgingly adapting to Slytherin. He's been telling me during our meetings that the pestering has let up, except for the rare taunt here and there. At least he's made a couple of friends now, he's told me. Thankfully they haven't called him any names._  
--

"Sometimes they can be really insulting," he told Andromeda one day as they sat in the library. "They still pester me for the fact that I'm poor, half-blood, and parentless."

"Have you told them that you don't appreciate it?"

"That would just make them pick on me even more," he sighed. "Mostly, I just try to ignore them."

Andromeda heaved a sigh. They were in the middle of doing their homework assignments one rainy Monday afternoon and Andromeda, unfortunately, couldn't think of the right thing to say to her brother that would make him feel any better.

"Well, I guess it could be worse," Andromeda replied slowly. Tom made a grunting noise as he wrote something down on his piece of parchment.

"I just wish I could have switched houses..."

They sat in silence, their quills scratching against the parchment as they wrote.

"So," Andromeda began, trying to bring up something more pleasant once a few silent moments had passed, "what are your new friends like?"

"They're okay," he answered. "Their names are Murdoch Black and Carrey Malfoy."

Andromeda was looking up another fact in the book she was reading when she said randomly, "Abby's told me a lot about those two, in fact, about Slytherin overall. It seems that most of the Slytherins are very selective and only accept those in their group that are 'pure-blood'. Abby also mentioned something about Slytherin turning out the most dark wizards than any other house. Be very careful with whom you hang out, you don't want to become jaded and evil like them."

Tom stopped writing all together and looked up at Andromeda incredulously. "_Duh_! It's not like I actually planned on being some poor, parentless half-blood. Besides, Murdoch and Carrey aren't like the others. Furthermore, you knew that I wanted to change houses, but that half-witted rhyming hat wouldn't let me switch."

"Yeah, but please just be careful all the same," Andromeda said again, her face down in her parchment. "I don't want to see you get hurt. I'm just trying to look out for you. It's what sisters do."

Tom looked up again and smiled. "Okay, but I don't need anyone to look out for me. I think I can take care of myself."

_October 2nd, 1938,  
I had a terrible nightmare last night, it was the worst I've ever had. I must have been tossing and turning quite violently, since I awakened to Sophie and Marcella shaking me. They were standing over my bed, both looking extremely scared and worried._  
---

That night as Andromeda closed her eyes and had gone to sleep, she dreamed that it was a cold, wintry day and she was sitting outside under a tree with her friends. Suddenly, everything in her dream went pitch black and Sophie and Marcella were nowhere to be seen.

"Hello?" Andromeda called out nervously. Her voice echoed in the silence and an ice-cold hand grabbed hers, tugging her forward. She wanted to yell, but she soon found that no sound could escape her mouth. Everything moved in slow motion, like she was underwater.

The hand pulled her forward into the castle and through a room where a floor length mirror stood. In the dim room, the candlelight revealed the white and skeleton-like hand to have a grotesque symbol cut into it. The hand belonged to a person wearing a long hooded robe. Andromeda couldn't make out who was underneath it. The hand pointed to the mirror and Andromeda looked at her mirror image, yet it wasn't quite the image she was expecting, as she was a great deal older in the mirror. Andromeda estimated her reflection to be around seventeen years old. She had become a beautiful young lady.

_I actually have curves,_ she smiled to herself.

Pulling her gaze away from the mirror, she looked down at herself and saw that she truly was seventeen years old. She had aged six years in a blink of an eye, but what caught her attention the most were the two badges she wore on her chest. Leaning in the mirror for a closer look, she saw one said "Prefect," the other "Head Girl." Whatever this dream was trying to tell Andromeda, she couldn't guess for the life of her what it could possibly be.

She stood there admiring herself in the reflection until another person appeared beside her... it was Tom, and he, too, was older. Seventeen - like her - to be precise. She turned around and came face to face with her brother. He, as well, was wearing a "Prefect" and "Head Boy" badge.

"Tom, what's going on?" she asked him, hoping maybe he knew what was going on.

Tom looked at her with an apologetic expression on his face. "I'm sorry, Andromeda, I really am."

He held up his hands and she saw that they were completely covered in blood. Slowly, the blood dripped from his hands onto the floor, leaving crimson spots all over the ground.

"The blood from hundreds of innocent victims," he mumbled, as the blood continued to ooze from his hands like from a freshly cut wound.

Andromeda stumbled backwards, a look of pure terror on her face. She held her hands up to mouth and gasped for breath. Slowly, she started backing away and began feeling around in the darkness for a door that could get her out of this place. The person in the hooded robe pulled back the head piece to unveil a thin, colorless face with red vertical slits for eyes.

"Your brother will be joining me," it hissed.

_No!_ she thought. Andromeda wanted to scream, yell, do something, but was too stricken with terror and couldn't bring herself to do any of those things.

She glanced back into the mirror again and Tom, who was now gazing into it as well, saw that his reflection wasn't his anymore. It had become that of the thing next to him: tall, skeletally thin with red vertical slits for eyes. Andromeda quickly pulled her eyes away from the mirror and looked into the saddened eyes of her again normal looking brother, who was pulling something out from inside his robe.

"I'm sorry, Andromeda," Tom said again, his wand now pointed at her. It was the last thing she saw as a bright outburst of green light suddenly blinded her... a high-pitched and cold laughter filled her head.

"No!"

"Andromeda! Andromeda! Wake up!" Sophie and Marcella were shaking Andromeda awake.

"Are you alright?" Marcella exclaimed.

Sophie added, "You were mumbling something, but we couldn't make out what it was... but that's not important. We just want to know if you're alright or not. Do you want us to get the nurse?"

Andromeda's head was throbbing with pain. _Too many questions_, she thought. It simply hurt too much to think.

"Ugh," she complained, slowly sitting up in her bed. "I'm fine, really." Sophie and Marcella exchanged glances. "Guys! I'm fine, honestly! It was just a bad dream. That's all!" Andromeda exclaimed.

"You had us worried sick. You were tossing and turning, throwing your sheets around. Look... you even pulled down your curtains," Sophie pointed out. "We'll help you get your bed back together."

"Thank you," Andromeda sighed.

_October 5th, 1938,  
I haven't told Tom about that nightmare yet. I really don't think I should. He's got enough to dwell on right now and I don't want him to think his sister has gone mental over a silly dream. Yet, it seemed much more realistic than just a dream. I can't explain it... it was almost too real in a way... I never even told Marcella and Sophie about it._

Speaking of my friends, today was Sophie's birthday. I didn't know what to get her, as I have only known her since the beginning of September, but she said that having me as a friend was more important than gifts. Later she asked me when my birthday was...  
---

"October thirty-first," Andromeda replied.

"Ooh, a Halloween birthday, how neat," Sophie beamed.

"It sounds interesting and all, but it lead toward unmerciful teasing at times," Andromeda recalled with a shudder.

"Sometimes people can be enormous prats," Sophie said, rolling her eyes. "Did they even celebrate your birthday at the orphanage?"

"No. Madam Westyn never celebrated _anyone's_ birthdays at the orphanage," she answered morosely.

_October 21st, 1938,  
I had another nightmare last night, though this one wasn't nearly as bad as the last one. Thank heavens for something, as I don't think I could handle another one like the last._

This time I dreamed I was in a dreary, desolate place...  
---

_Where am I?_ she thought. Looking about, she noticed a narrow pathway leading into a dimly lit area. She followed the pathway, which was lined by snake-head statues. To her side was a shallow pool of water, and right above it was a statue of a man carved into stone. Andromeda wondered what type of place she was in... it was very eerie and creeping her out -- big time.

She meandered along a little further and came to a spot in the room separated by two large pillars.

Andromeda heard voices coming from around somewhere in the room. They sounded like they were... hissing... _Like snakes,_ she thought. _How very odd._

Whoever was creating the hissing sounds sounded like something was following closely behind them... something large. But what struck Andromeda as odd was that she could understand what the person was saying.

_"There's someone here... find them..."_

She hid behind the pillar and looked ahead, though it wasn't very well lit. Straining her eyes, she could make out the outline of a person and something that looked to be... _a snake!_

But this wasn't your everyday, commonplace snake. This one was about sixty feet long she guessed. Andromeda drew in her breath and held it as she didn't want to be discovered by that monstrosity.

_Please don't find me... Please don't find me, _she prayed.

The colossal snake slithered on by, right past where Andromeda was hiding. She breathed a deep sigh of relief once it left, but unfortunately, the monster heard her. Slowly it's turned around, trying to find the source of the sound... it's next victim. Andromeda's intuition was ordering her to not look into its eyes, though she didn't understand why. Yet, she followed her instincts and shut her eyes just as the monstrous serpent pounced down on her... her heart began to pound in her chest... she opened her eyes... half expecting to find herself being devoured by it. But instead, she found herself back in the safety of her bed.

Sighing, she rolled to her side and tried to shake off the frightful images of her dream.


	5. Chapter 5

_April 27th, 1939,  
The Easter holidays are over with, though it really didn't seem like much of a holiday with all of the homework I've been doing. Final exams are coming up in June and everyone has reluctantly started to prepare for them. I was one of the few that studied over the Easter holidays, everybody else mostly relaxed and enjoyed the remaining bit of freedom they had before worrying about the exams._

Every day I've been heading to the library to find books to take with me back to the common room to study and every day I see Tom in there as well. Shortly after the Quidditch finals we continued our meetings, although the meetings weren't quite the same as they used to be. Something about the meetings felt . . . odd. Perhaps it's just me, but I think that being in Slytherin with all those "pure-blood" freaks and stuck up gits that he's around twenty-four/seven is affecting him.  
I would point it out it to him, but I don't know how he'd take it. He'd probably deny it anyway.  
---

After classes were over with, Andromeda made her daily pilgrimage to the library. Not only was she meeting Tom again, but she was preparing for the end of year exams that were coming up in June. Apparently, Tom was preparing for them too.

As she was looking for a book on Charms, she bumped into her brother. "Oh, hi Tom!" Andromeda said cheerfully. He replied with a simple "Hi."

"Are you preparing for the end of year exams too?" she asked, hoping to get more of a response out of him. He nodded and answered, "Yeah. I'm looking for some books to take back with me."

"Which ones are you looking for?" she inquired. When he told her, she responded, "I have those. I've finished reading them so you can have them if you like."

As she gave him her finished books, she noticed that he had the Charms book she was searching for. "Were you looking at the Charms book too? I was looking for it to read."

"Here, you can take it. I was just gonna return it anyway," Tom replied rather dully, handing her the Charms book. She thanked him for it and together they headed over toward an empty table to talk. Andromeda suddenly found it hard to talk to him. Normally conversations with him came easily to her, but this time it didn't. Now she felt like she was talking to a brick wall.

"So," Andromeda began slowly, "how's everything going in... Slytherin."

Tom just shrugged. "Okay, I guess."

They remained quiet for a little bit. Eventually Andromeda tried her hand at talking to Tom again. "Are you excited about the exams?"

Tom looked up from his book and replied, "I guess so. Why do you ask?"

Andromeda was slowly beginning to lose her patience. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn she saw a tiny glimpse of a smile on his face when he didn't think she was looking. Was he enjoying annoying her?

"So," she trying again and tapping her foot on the floor, attempting for the last and final time to get more than just a few words out of her stoic brother, "how are Carrey and Murdoch?"

"They're fine," he answered, not even looking up from his book.

"Tom, do you know how to answer a question with more than just two or three words?" she asked scathingly.

"Um-hmm. Why do you ask? HA! There, see!" he replied sarcastically. "I used _eight_ words."

Andromeda could feel her blood starting to boil.

"Look Tom," she yelled jumping up from her seat, "I don't know what your problem is, but it's gotta stop. You used to enjoy talking with me. Now I can't even get more than a few words out of you!"

In a huff, she grabbed her books and stormed off, leaving Tom with a small sneer on his lips.

"Do I perceive distension in the air?" a third voice hollered. 

"Shut-up, Peeves," she heard Tom sigh, throwing a large book at the poltergeist.

"Ooh, shut-up, shut-up, shut-up, widdle baby Wriddle tells me!" Peeves taunted.

Andromeda looked behind her at the translucent ghost wearing a horrid orange suit, flying just inches above her brother's head.

_Nick was right_, she thought. _Peeves is definitely one to stay away from._

_May 13th, 1939,  
The days have gotten so hot that every day after class, Marcella, Sophie, and I head to the lake to cool off. I used to employ this time by going to the library to visit Tom, but since that last visit, I haven't gone back to see him since._  
---

"Have you been to visit your Tom recently?" Marcella asked one day as her Sophie and Andromeda were sitting out by the lake, dragging their feet in the water to cool off. "No," Andromeda answered. It was something she hadn't talked about very much. It hurt her too deeply. A part of her still wanted to see Tom, the other didn't. Her friends knew why she wasn't meeting him any more and they had been supportive of her.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," Sophie said. "Maybe you guys just need some time apart." 

Later when they headed down to the Great Hall for dinner that evening, Andromeda overheard someone whispering loudly from the Slytherin table. "Those Gryffindors think they're so big."

There was some snickering and someone else added, "We'll make them pay." Andromeda looked over at Sophie and Marcella, who each just shrugged their shoulders and rolled their eyes. As Andromeda continued walking, she heard someone say a little louder, "Your sis sure is stuck up." Quickly glancing behind her, she saw Tom squirm in his seat and fondle his black hair. "She's fine. Leave her alone."

_At least_, Andromeda thought, _he's still defending me._ That gave her a little pang of guilt in her stomach. She knew that she should try and meet Tom again. It wasn't fair that he had to spend all his time with those unrefined prats who were probably jading him right as she spoke. She decided that she would try after dinner to meet Tom, but unfortunately after dinner he left the Great Hall with the other Slytherins and Andromeda wasn't able to catch up with him.

_June 2nd, 1939,  
The end of year exams are finally over. They started yesterday morning after breakfast and didn't end until around lunchtime. All the First years were dreading this day, except Tom and me._

Unfortunately we have to wait until the summer before we find out how we did. The waiting and suspense are bloody dreadful, though Sophie and Marcella keep reassuring me that I probably aced the tests with no problem.  
---

"Don't worry about it, Andromeda," Sophie reassured. "Yeah," agreed Marcella. "What is more, everyone was worried about the tests before they began, _you're_ worried about them _afterwards_."

All the First years she encountered were ecstatic that the tests were over with. Andromeda absolutely couldn't wait to find out how she'd done on them. The waiting was driving her mad.

Andromeda wondered how Tom was taking it. Was he anxiously waiting for the results like her? Or was he like all the other First years who were glad they were over with? All Andromeda knew was that whenever she saw him during meals, he seemed like he wasn't worried about them. She figured she shouldn't worry about them either. It just simply wasn't worth the stress she was causing herself.

_June 3rd, 1939,  
Tonight is the end of term feast. All the other students are happy that summer vacation is here... everyone that is, except Tom and me. Summer vacation means we have to go back to that dreaded orphanage for three whole months. I know Tom isn't happy about that._

When I saw him the other day, he looked down right infuriated. I asked him what was wrong, he told me that in just a few days that we'd be going back "to... to that place." To try and make him feel better, I told him that we'd be finding out the results of our exams very soon, though very soon meant waiting until summer. He seemed a little bit happier (but not much) after that.  
---

Later that night was the end of term feast. It was as magnificent as the one they had for the beginning of the school year. Although it was bright and cheery, Andromeda found it very hard to keep herself happy. Tomorrow she would be leaving her friends and heading back to that awful orphanage and she knew that Tom wasn't exactly thrilled about it either.

"Welcome students to the end of term feast!" exclaimed Professor Dippet. "It's hard to believe that the school year is over with, but don't worry, the new school year will be here before you know it."

A couple of people in the Great Hall snorted.

"Now, before we eat, we will declare the winners of the house cup!" Cheers went up from the students. "In fourth place with one-hundred and seventy five points... Hufflepuff!" The Hufflepuff table gave an unceremonious and disappointing clap. "In third place with two-hundred and fifty points... Ravenclaw!" A little bit more boisterous applause came from the Ravenclaw table. "In second place with three-hundred and twenty points... Slytherin!" Forced and anguished applause came from the Slytherin table. "And in first place with three-hundred and thirty points... certainly a close score... is Gryffindor!" Loud cheers and yells came from the Gryffindor table.

"Oh! We... we won!" Abby yelled ecstatically. She started hugging everyone within five feet of her. Andromeda glanced over at the Slytherin table and saw some of them giving the Gryffindors an evil glower. Unfortunately one of those people giving them the glower was Tom. As his eyes met his sister's, the words 'Next year... next year we'll win. Just you wait,' echoed through her head.

He continued glaring at Andromeda as she turned away and celebrated the House cup victory with her friends. Competitive was not normally a word she would have used with her brother, but apparently, it was so.

_He probably just wants to have a bit of the glory for himself,_ she thought. _But not this year,_ she added. _This is our year..._

_June 4th, 1939,  
Today is a really depressing day as I have to say good-bye to Sophie and Marcella for the summer. They promised me they'd write every week to keep in touch, it's the only thing I have to look forward to._

I'll be taking this diary with me to the orphanage, but I don't think I'll be writing in it. There usually isn't anything exciting that goes on there, but I want to keep it on me just to have.  
---

"Good-bye, Andromeda," Sophie said, giving her friend a tight squeeze. "We're gonna miss you," Marcella added.

"I'll miss you guys too," Andromeda said, trying to fight back the tears as she embraced her friends. The three friends huddled in a circle and cried. When they finally calmed down, they each grabbed their suitcases and left Hogwarts castle. They had a long trip ahead of them.

By the entrance of the Hogwarts Express, Andromeda saw Tom waiting for her.

"Canwesitnexttoeachother?" he mumbled, looking down at his feet.

"Pardon me?" Andromeda asked.

"C - c - can... we sit next to each other?"

She looked at Sophie and Marcella and they each shrugged.

"Sure," Andromeda replied tentatively. "That is, if you don't mind sitting next to my friends."

"No."

"Where are Carrey and Murdoch?" she asked. "Did you have a fight or something?"

"There serving detention in a vacant compartment," he replied morosely as they boarded the train. "Professor Ambley caught them trying to hex a Hufflepuff. She was very angry, you should have seen it." A small smile pulled at his lips. "I saw the whole thing, I thought she was going to have a fit."

"You do know that Professor Ambley is Head of Hufflepuff, right? That's why she was so upset."

Tom merely shrugged, still wearing a mysterious smile.

By the time when Andromeda, Tom, Sophie, and Marcella found a vacant compartment, the other students were finally on board and the whistle sounded. The train started pulling away from the Hogwarts station, the castle slowly getting smaller in the distance... They were heading back, a long journey back to Platform 9 3/4.


	6. Chapter 6

_January 10th, 1939,  
Sophie and Marcella have been back for a few weeks now. They absolutely loved the presents I sent them. Tom has been wearing his new scarf, an indisputable sign that he liked it._

Our second term has begun and slowly the teachers are preparing us for the end of term exams.  
---

"Ugh. Just think, in a few months we have to take our end of term exams," groaned Sophie as she sat outside, making snowballs that day. 

"Double ugh," agreed Marcella.

Andromeda wasn't too concerned about the tests. She usually did well in school and made good grades, so a little thing like the end of term exams wasn't high on her list of things to fret over. Another person she knew who in all likelihood wasn't worried about the tests either was her brother Tom. They were both favorites among the teachers for being incredibly intelligent and quick witted.

It was a cold, Saturday afternoon and Andromeda and her friends were lallygagging around the front lawns making snowballs and talking about the impending end of term tests.

"I'm not too worried about them," Andromeda answered as she made an egg-shaped ball.

"Well of course you're not worried about them. You're smart, intelligent and bright, so a little matter like that isn't going to worry you," Sophie sighed as she tossed her snowball into a group of Slytherins. 

Smiling, she watched her projectile land on Stephane's neck and slide down his back, causing him to jump about ten feet into the air.  
"Score!" she exclaimed as she watched Stephane shimmy and shake, trying to dislodge the cold, icy snowball from his back.

"You guys are smart, intelligent, and bright, too!" Andromeda pointed out.

Marcella shook her head and replied, "You always get good marks from the teachers and the teachers absolutely love you and your brother. Meanwhile, we're just scraping by with barely passable grades."

Deep inside, Andromeda knew she couldn't argue with her friends, even if part of what she was saying was true. The teachers loved having her and her brother in their classes and many have said that they were the two smartest kids in the whole school. Of course this led to some pestering generated by the Slytherins, but she learned quickly to ignore them. She knew the Slytherins could be downright vicious at times.

Watching Sophie's induced debacle from afar, she grinned as Stephane angrily looked around to see who had pelted him with the snowball.

As her friends looked away, Andromeda threw her egg-shaped snowball at the back of Stephan's head. Laughing evilly to herself, she watched him furiously trying to wipe the snow off the back of his head.

An hour later, they sloshed their way back through the castle, hoping not to attract the attention of Moody, who would have killed them if he saw the soggy mess they made in the hallways.

Once they turned down a hallway, only a few corridors away from the entrance to the common room, they stopped dead in their tracks. Up ahead stood Tom, his wand pointed directly at a cowering Hufflepuff boy, his mouth curled into a twisted sort of face.

"Take that back!" She heard Tom shouting at the poor boy.  
"I'm... I'm sorry!" the boy squealed, cowering into the wall.

"Thomas! What on earth are you doing?" Andromeda yelled in disbelief. Tom looked up at her, a vacant expression on his face, but his eyes were ablaze. Pushing the boy away, he stormed off, barging his way by Andromeda, causing her wet feet to slide out from under her.

"What do you think happened?" Sophie asked, eyes wide in amazement.  
Guesses swirled through her head, but none of them could explain Tom's demeanor.

_February 14th, 1939,  
Today is Marcella's birthday and Valentine's Day as well, and since it was a holiday, Sophie colored the food on Marcella's and mine plates for the occasion, which of course was also a special treat for Marcella's birthday. Sophie also sprinkled pink and red confetti over our section of the table._

And just for the record before I forget... I met my first ghost today.  
---

While Andromeda walked to the Great Hall for breakfast that morning, she was suddenly stopped by something iridescent in front of her. Looking up, she came face-to-face with a ghost in period clothing.

"Why, hello, young Miss!"

She looked up into the pale, translucent face of a man.  
"What's your name?" he asked.  
Andromeda gaped at the ghost before replying, "M-M-Andromeda R-R-Riddle."

"Hello Andromeda!" the ghost smiled. "I'm Sir Nicholas de Mimsey Porpington, but you can call me Nick for short. I'm also the Gryffindor house ghost."

"Hello Nick," she replied, starting to ease up around the ghost. "What's a house ghost?"

"Every house here in Hogwarts has an official ghost, of sorts. I'm Gryffindor's ghost. First year, I presume?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Ah. I would have been here to see the Sorting ceremonies last September, but I had an all-important meeting with the members of the Headless Hunt. Funny how those months just flew. Unfortunately they still denied my request to join!"

"What do you mean by Headless Hunt?"  
Nick lifted up his head to reveal that his head was nearly severed off.

"Just a bit of skin holding it on. They don't consider it nearly good enough, I guess."

Andromeda felt green around the gills. That had to be the most disgusting thing she had ever seen in her life.  
"I better be off. Good day to you Andromeda. Oh, and do be careful of Peeves."

"Who's Peeves?" she asked.

"Peeves is a poltergeist." A loud crash came from the floor above them. "A very noisy and disruptive poltergeist. Best not to get tangled up with him," Nick sighed. "I better go see what he got himself into now." He disappeared into the wall beside him, much to the astonishment of Andromeda.

As she continued her walk to the Great Hall, she met up with Abby, who was blushing from ear to ear.  
"You're really happy," Andromeda said with a grin.

"Oh, I uh... didn't see you there," Abby replied blushing, while trying to conceal something she had in her hand. Andromeda noticed it and from the quick peek she got of it, it looked like a note or something.

"You got a secret admirer?" Andromeda asked, still grinning. Abby suddenly turned a darker shade of red.  
"How'd you guess?" she questioned.

"It's kinda obvious," Andromeda said. "It's Valentine's Day, you're blushing, and you have a note in your hand."  
"You're very observant," Abby answered. She looked at the note again and heaved a sigh. "If only I knew who sent it."

"Who would you like it to be from?"

Abby sighed again. "Well... there was that cute Quidditch captain on the Ravenclaw team. I think he likes me... Well, I'm not exactly sure he does. He talks to me from time to time, but I don't think that equates to him liking me. Besides, someone like him would probably be too busy to write to someone like me... let alone on today of all days."

"Don't say that. You're smart, pretty, and he'd be a dang fool if he didn't like you," Andromeda said.

Abby smiled, as her cheeks went a shade darker. "You're absolutely right!"

Together they walked into the Great Hall, both unaware of Sophie's transformation of the Gryffindor tables for the holiday. Upon entering, their eyes met the decked out table. "Wow" was the only thing they could muster.

As they passed by the Slytherin table, Andromeda overheard someone make a gagging sound. "Talk about pukey," she heard someone say. Andromeda looked over and saw it was Tom who had said it. He sat there, boredom written all across his face as sat with his legs crossed, kicking his right foot slightly. Carrey was pretending to vomit.

Andromeda rolled her eyes and continued walking toward the Gryffindor table. _Boys have no appreciation for cute stuff like this at all_, she thought.

"Guess what?" Sophie said to Andromeda when she and Abby finally made it to their table. Andromeda obviously didn't know what was 'what', so she asked her what she was talking about.

"Today is Marcella's birthday," Sophie replied. "Peter was nice enough to light a candle for us to stick in her French toast." Andromeda looked over and saw a candle sitting in the middle of Marcella's uneaten French toast.

"I was waiting for you to come before I blew it out," Marcella said. "But now that you're here..." She closed her eyes and blew out the candle. Andromeda, Sophie, and Abby then went into a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday."

_March 18th, 1939,  
Spring is slowly starting to arrive. The days are beginning to feel warm and the snow is melting. Abby is very excited. _

This Saturday is the final Quidditch match of the season and it will be Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Whoever wins will get the Quidditch cup. Professor Dumbledore has made it a point not give the Gryffindor students any extra homework for the week leading up to the game. He informed them one day after class to "practice hard and play like champions."

Tension between the two houses are at an all time high. Not one Gryffindor or Slytherin can walk in the hallway without exchanging an insult (or worse, a hex) from the other. At least five students have been sent to the infirmary from being hit by one. It's unfortunate for me to write that Tom was a perpetrator in one of those cases. I was walking out of the library the other day and apparently a Sixth year Gryffindor girl was mocking him over the upcoming match. Mind you, Tom can have a bit of a short fuse at times, and well... he hexed her with the 'furnunculus' curse. Sad to say, she's still in the infirmary with some rather nasty boils on her face.

The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are afraid to even be in the same room with a Gryffindor or Slytherin as they're worried they might become the unfortunate recipient of an unwanted hex. Luckily, the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are generally on friendly terms with us Gryffindors and are supporting us to win the Quidditch cup.

Apart from that, Tom won't even meet me in the library after class anymore. I made him promise me that when all this absurdity has stopped we would resume our meetings. He reluctantly agreed.

The school has gone into complete pandemonium...  
---

That day after school, Andromeda decided to go out and watch the Gryffindor team practice as she wasn't meeting her brother in the library anymore.

Andromeda found a vacant seat up in the middle of the stands. Although she was a fair distance from the ground, she could still make out Abby standing in the middle of the field, leading her team through many excruciating drills and exercises. At that moment they were in the middle of doing pushups.

"C'mon team!" yelled Abby. "If we want to beat those slimy Slytherins this Saturday, we're gonna have to work hard for it!"

Even from up in the stands, Andromeda could hear the rest of the team grumble.

"Bloody hell you guys, don't give me that poppycock!" Abby huffed with her hands on her hips. More grumbling emanated from the team.

"Oh, alright," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "We'll stop the exercises for now. Let's just practice our technique on passing the Quaffle. Everyone mount your brooms on push off into the air."

The other players and Abby were soon in the air passing around a red ball that was the Quaffle. Once Abby and her team practiced that move, she announced, "Now let's divide into two teams and play a practice game against each other."

Andromeda watched them for another hour eventually realizing that her stomach was rumbling. It was nearing dinnertime! Abby must have realized the time too, as she announced that practice was over with for the day, amid cheers from the team.

Andromeda rushed down the steps and met up with Abby on the ground. "I saw your practice today. I just know that Gryffindor is going to win!"  
Abby beamed at her. "We have the best team, so I know we'll win... or else!" she yelled as she glared at the rest of the team.

Saturday came around and all of Hogwarts was in a Quidditch frenzy. As Andromeda came down for breakfast, she noticed that everybody was wearing a red and gold pin that read "Go Gryffindor!" Even the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were wearing "Go Gryffindor" pins.

The only ones who weren't wearing them were the Slytherins. They had their own "unique" pins that blinked and flashed the saying "Go Slytherin! The Gryffindors are losers!"

"Ugh," Abby scowled as she looked with disgust at the Slytherins and their insulting pins. "The only ones who are losers are them for wearing something so horrendous." She looked at Andromeda and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, uh, Andromeda, I wouldn't look to your right you if I were you," Sophie said who was sitting next to Andromeda and Marcella.

"Why?" she asked curiously.

"Uhhh... just because," Sophie replied. She gave Marcella a cryptic look. Marcella got the hint and quickly looked to her right and nearly gasped. She saw Tom sitting at the Slytherin table with hands clasped behind his head, proudly wearing one of the "Gryffindors are losers" pins.

Not following Sophie's advice and letting curiosity get the better of her, Andromeda looked to her side saw the same thing Marcella had. Her temper suddenly flared up inside her. Before Marcella or Sophie could react, Andromeda was up and heading straight over to the Slytherin table. She walked around the table and stopped directly behind Tom. She tapped him on the shoulder and slowly he turned around and came face to face with his irritated sister.

"So," she said, looking at him squarely in the eyes, "you think that Gryffindors are losers, huh?"

"I'm sure you must know that Gryffindor has absolutely zero talent in Quidditch —"

"_What_?!" she spat angrily. "Where do you come up with such ludicrous theories?!"

"It's rather obvious, isn't it?" Tom replied, his temper cool, calm, and collected, which further infuriated his sister. "You really shouldn't let a silly little pin get to you like that."

"Oooh," chorused the Slytherins while over at the Gryffindor table Marcella and Sophie watched with bated breath.

Andromeda stormed away from the Slytherin table and headed back to her house's table, leaving Tom with a smug expression on his face. She didn't say anything to anyone and remained very quiet for the rest of the meal.

After breakfast, Andromeda got up and left the table leaving Sophie and Marcella behind. "Where is she going?" Sophie asked. Marcella shrugged. "I don't know, but the game will be starting soon!"

A little while later, Andromeda appeared again. The game hadn't started yet, so she still had time to make it to the Quidditch pitch before the game started. As she headed up the steps to meet with her friends, a few people stopped and stared at her. She knew exactly what they were gazing at. She grinned as she continued proudly walking up the stairs.

"Hey Andromeda!" Sophie said. "Where have you been?"  
Andromeda smiled mischievously and replied, "Simply adjusting my pin." She held it up as it read "Go Gryffindor! Those slimly Slytherins are the REAL losers!"  
Sophie and Marcella burst out into laughter.

"After breakfast I headed back to the common room and that's when I modified it," Andromeda replied as she wiped tears of laughter from her face.

Before long, Professor Luchtig had made her way out onto the field carrying a large, dark-brown trunk. The game was beginning!

"Let's have a good natured and clean game, okay?" Professor Luchtig ordered, staring at the two captains. "Please shake hands." Abby extended her hand and shook it with the short, brown-haired Slytherin captain whom everyone knew as Stephane Lestrange. Abby hastily pulled back her hand and grasped it. The jerk squeezed Abby's hand so tightly, she thought it was going to pop right off.

"Everyone mount your brooms!"

Each teams seven players were in the air. "On the count of three... One... two... THREE!" Professor Luchtig blew her whistle and released the balls.

"The game begins with Abby grabbing the Quaffle from right under the Slytherin teams' nose!" Patrick Jones said. "Wow! Abby Bones is really flying fast! Oh my, she scores only ten seconds into the game! Ten points for Gryffindor!"

Everyone in the stands cheered, that is, except for the Slytherins.

The game went on and each player on both teams fought tooth and nail for the victory. When Gryffindor scored, the Slytherins would turn around and score, tying the game up again. The game proved to definitely be a nail-biter.

Eventually the game was one-hundred to one-hundred and everyone in the stands were sitting on edge. The game had been going on for a couple of hours and the players were getting exhausted and tired. Fatigue was setting in, Andromeda could tell, as Abby didn't quite have the same vigor she had at the start of the game.

"Abby has the Quaffle... she shoots... aw, she misses. Better luck next time Abby! This is the longest game Hogwarts has seen in some time. In order for it to end, one of the teams' Seekers must find and catch the golden snitch to earn their house one-hundred and fifty points. Gryffindor's and Slytherin's Seekers are both pooped from the never-ending search for the snitch. Finding it will certainly be a chore now."

Andromeda, Sophie, and Marcella anxiously watched, each hoping the Gryffindor Seeker would find the snitch before the Slytherin team did while over on the Slytherin side, Tom and his friends were pulling for Slytherin to find the snitch first.

Just when everyone thought the game would surely go on forever, they all received a surprise. "The Gryffindor Seeker has found and caught the snitch! Gryffindor will receive one-hundred and fifty points and win the game and trophy!"

Deafening cheers went up through the stadium as all the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs all clapped and yelled. With all the cheering going on, no one could hear the boos and hisses coming from the Slytherins.  
Andromeda and her friends were beside themselves with glee as they jumped up and down in their seats.

"First-rate party!" Sophie exclaimed later that night. The entire Gryffindor team was throwing an enormous celebration in the common room to celebrate them winning the Quidditch cup. It was a huge festivity as Slytherin had won the Qudditch cup the last seven years, so this was quite a huge thrill for the Gryffindors.

A few of the team players had managed to bring in a whole buffet of food and drinks for everyone. This was certainly a much bigger party than the one they had at the start of the Quidditch season. It was a good thing the next day was Sunday as the party lasted well into the night.

Everyone in Gryffindor House slept in the next morning as they were all thoroughly exhausted from the merrymaking of the night before.


	7. Chapter 7

_August 30th, 1939,  
We're finally heading back to Hogwarts. From the time we arrived back at the orphanage, Tom and I literally counted down the days until we would head back to school for our second year. Tom was exceptionally elated about leaving, as the other boys in his dormitory frequently harassed him. It nearly escalated into a fistfight once. And since our return to the orphanage, Mme. Westyn has not made things easy for us at all, particularly for Tom. Whenever the others would start their teasing, Tom would always be the one to take the blame. Lately she's been getting physical with him. Why just the other day, she hit him so hard, it left a small bruise on his cheek._

I'm lucky enough to not have scrapes with the girls in my dorm, as they generally dismiss me and keep for the most part to themselves. They rarely speak to me, but when they do, it's usually to call me 'freak'... or something much worse. Yet things have never gotten as bad as with Tom.

Truly, I don't know how he can continue to deal with all this. He's vented to me about this numerous times, but I can't help but wonder if he's bottling some of his anger... just waiting for the right time to release it. If the Ministry regulations should ever permit underage wizards to do magic away from Hogwarts, I can guarantee you that Tom and I would have cursed everyone at Mme. Westyn's by now. To them, we are nothing more than the social outcasts, the pariahs if you will, of Mme. Westyn's orphanage. Sadly, she does absolutely nothing to subdue the problem.  
---

They were finally heading back to Hogwarts after suffering months of ridicule from their peers at the orphanage. On their journey back, Tom and Andromeda chose to sit by themselves in a vacant compartment on the train, as neither wanted any uninvited callers. Tom sat on one side, his eyelids becoming progressively heavier, while she sat on the other. Though his head was turned, she could still see the bruise slightly on the side of his face.

_Mme. Westyn can be such a pain-the-ass at times,_ she thought bitterly.

As there was nothing of interest to do besides look out the window, Andromeda pulled out her diary and began writing in it. As the sounds of Tom softly snoring filled her ears, she began writing in her diary until a knock at the compartment door interrupted her. Quickly glancing up, she saw that it was her friends, Sophie and Marcella. Running up to the door, she thrust it open so they could enter.

"Come on in," she grinned, standing behind the door. "I've really missed you guys!"

"Hi Andromeda," Sophie greeted as walking into the compartment, closely followed by Marcella.

"We've missed you so much!" After giving each other a big hug, Marcella giggled, "It's so wonderful to see you again. Talking by letter is okay, but it's better when you can see your friend in person."

By this time, Tom had awoken from his short nap, and he scowled angrily at the intruders.  
"It's okay, Tom," his sister reassured him. The angry expression he wore soon faded, but it didn't disappear entirely.

"Tom!" Sophie exclaimed. "What happened to your face?"

Tom brought up his hand to touch his face and grimaced slightly. "I don't want to talk about it," he muttered, not looking at her.

For most of the remaining train ride, the three friends caught up on their activities during the summer. During their conversation, Andromeda looked over at her brother. At one point, she noticed that he still appeared a bit sulky as he glared out the window, quietly fingering his injury.

Discreetly giving a sideways glance to her friends, they picked up on her message. Sophie looked at Tom and asked him how his summer had gone. Tom shrugged his shoulders.

"If you consider living in a cesspool with a spiteful headmistress, where everyone seems to hate your guts fun, then I guess was okay," he scoffed, still peering out at the window.

"No need to be rude," Andromeda chided. "She was just --"

"-- asking about _my_ summer," he frowned, finally pulling his gaze away from the window to look directly at her. His mouth was pursed together tightly.

"So," Marcella said, interrupting them in hopes of lightening the atmosphere, "you must've been really looking forward to going back to Hogwarts, then."

"Obviously," he answered, returning his gaze to out the window, "I wish we didn't have to leave it at all."

"Oh, look!" Sophie exclaimed, after an hour had elapsed. "We're almost here!" The foursome gathered around the window, and sure enough they could make out the tiny form of Hogwarts, it's many turrets and towers visible in the distance.

Once they made their way off the train and into the cool and breezy night air, they stopped to look around. There were students wandering in every which direction, leaving little room for the quartet. Suddenly a Fifth year girl came bounding off the train and nearly ran into Tom in an apparent rush to meet up with some of her friends.

"Watch it!" he shouted at her, but the girl was already off in the distance and didn't hear him. "Where do we go now?" Tom complained as he rubbed his shoulder from the impact.

"Over here. We'll be riding in these," Sophie replied, indicating at the horseless carriages a few feet away.

"Don't we have to take the boat again?" Andromeda asked naively.

"Only First years take the boat," Sophie corrected. "Everyone else rides in carriages."

Upon encountering an unoccupied carriage, the youngsters climbed aboard and settled down in their seats. The carriages slowly began to move... by themselves.

"Look!" Andromeda exclaimed, pointing outside. It was an eerie sight seeing the carriages move without any help. Tom leaned forward in his seat and stuck his head out the window. The cool breeze mussed his jet-black hair, and when he pulled his head back in, the grin on his face stretched from ear-to-ear. "It's amazing how it moves without any horses to pull it," Andromeda breathed.

The carriage continued its trek through the darkness and around the castle, eventually making its way to the other side where, once it came to a halt, the kids jumped out and met the other students who had already gotten off.

"Hey, Riddle!" a cold, drawling voice yelled out. They turned around and came face-to-face with a Second year boy with a long, pointed face, pale blond hair, and a Slytherin crest on his robe. "What on earth are you doing fraternizing with those Gryffindors, Riddle?"

Andromeda felt an instant dislike for the boy with the sharp tongue and irritating voice. She equated his unnerving voice to a dull blade slowly cutting through her or nails scratching on a chalk board. She looked at her brother and could see him turn a dark shade of crimson.

"I, uh, had nobody to ride with," he muttered, completely caught off guard by his friend's remark.

"It could be worse, I guess. You could have been riding with those Dufferpuffs."

"It's _Huffle_puff," Andromeda interrupted crisply.

The boy scowled intensely at Andromeda for what seemed like ad infinitum. Take a picture, it lasts longer... she wanted to yell, but she refrained from doing so.

"You must be his sister," he commented, raising his one eyebrow. "He's told me about you. Mary or Mariah, was it?"

"It's Andromeda," she replied, scowling back. _What an idiot._

"I'm Carrey... Carrey Malfoy," the boy revealed.

"These are my friends, Sophie Prewett and Marcella Thomas." Carrey eyed them for a moment and then repeated, "Prewett? Thomas? I've heard of you. Both of your parents are Mudblood lovers," he muttered to the indignation of both Sophie and Marcella. "I would have expected better from pureblood girls' families."

Andromeda had no idea what a 'Mudblood' was, but obviously Sophie and Marcella knew. From the looks on their faces - a cross between severely affronted and intense anger - Andromeda reckoned that it wasn't a good term. Sophie crossed her arms over her chest and snarled through gritted teeth, "You filthy, stuck-up, no good, little cretin! If I -"

"I guess it's true then," Carrey shot back. "When you fell into the ignorance forest, you must've hit every branch on the way down."

"Hey, what's going on over here?" somebody yelled. Running up to where the disruption was, to Andromeda's great relief, was her friend Abby Bones.

"Abby, he called us Mudblood lovers!" Sophie attested, outraged. "He has to pay for that!"

Abby looked from Sophie and Marcella to Tom and Andromeda. Her gaze finally fell on Carrey. "Don't worry," she enunciated cunningly, a smile slowly creeping onto her face as if she had something unscrupulous up her robe sleeve. Giving a small wink to the girls, she strolled away, leaving them all a bit bemused.

"What was that all abou?" Marcella whispered to Sophie. Sophie merely shrugged her shoulders, as she couldn't make hide nor hair of what Abby had planned.

"Let's go, Riddle," Carrey motioned to Tom. He and Carrey meandered up to the castle, eventually being joined by Carrey's other chum, Murdoch Black.

Andromeda did not like Tom's friends at all. She thought Carrey was the biggest moron in the entire school. Thinking about this made her giggle, but she quickly stifled it before her friends could hear her.

Watching them from a good distance back, her happiness faded away as she worried that by hanging around them, Tom would eventually become an arrogant, self-centered, rude prat like them, picking up on their pureblood overzealousness.

"Let's go," suggested Marcella, breaking Andromeda of her thoughts. "The feast will likely be starting soon. We don't want to miss it."

While they trudged their way across the massive lawn, something was nagging inside her mind. "What's a 'Mudblood?'" she asked. Marcella and Sophie stopped walking and exchanged a worrisome look.

"A 'Mudblood,'" Sophie began, "is a derogatory name for someone who isn't pureblood. It means 'dirty blood' and generally isn't used in normal, polite conversation. The purebloods use it as a way of bringing down the half-bloods and Muggle-borns."

"Abby's pureblood," Marcella noted, "and so is Sophie. Oh, and don't forget Peter Longbottom. It just goes to show that there are some good purebloods out there."

"Precisely," Sophie verified, grinning at Marcella. "It's most unfortunate though that people like the Malfoys feel that anyone who has Muggle blood in them is below them and isn't suitable to practice magic."

"Do you want to know something?" Marcella asked. "If wizards and witches hadn't married Muggles, the whole wizarding population would have perished centuries ago."

They reached the entrance of Hogwarts just in time, as upon walking into the Great Hall, they could see the sorting ceremony was about to begin. They found their way to the Gryffindor table, and sat down just as Professor Dumbledore began to read off the names of the nervously waiting First year students.

Viewing the ceremony brought back memories of when she herself had gone through it just last year. She recalled how frightened she was as the hat was placed on her head. It took some time, but eventually the hat decided upon placing her in Gryffindor. Almost as soon as she'd left to join her house mates, Tom had sat down and had the hat set on his head. His sorting was acknowledged to be the longest on record at Hogwarts. With bated breath, she'd waited in hopes that the hat would call out Gryffindor, but she was profoundly disappointed when it finally settled on Slytherin House. Why and for what reason it put him there, Andromeda didn't understand.

Thinking of Slytherin at that exact moment, she looked over at their table and saw Tom eagerly watching the ceremonies as well. One-by-one, the crowd of nervous First year students reduced, and before long, there were none left. Andromeda peered around the table at the new Gryffindor students who were looking scared.

_Kind of how I must have looked last year_, she thought.

_September 5th, 1939,  
When Abby told to us not to "worry" that night when a particular prat by the name of Carrey Malfoy insulted my friends and me, she sincerely DID mean to NOT worry. Earlier today at breakfast, she extracted her revenge on the snotty-nosed imbecile._

I only wish that I could fix his expression into my memory forever...  
--- 

"Let's see," Abby began slowly as she twirled her lengthy red hair between her fingers in an attempt to prolong this embarrassing moment and make it even more agonizing for Carrey. "For insulting three of my fellow house mates with your rotten tongue and use of that monstrous word, I will subtract five points for each person to whom you said it. That adds up to a total of 15 points you just lost for Slytherin. Kudos to you. Remember this the next time you insult someone from my house!" She walked off with a self-satisfied smile on her face, leaving a stunned Carrey behind with a look of absolute shock, horror, and confusion on his face.

Across the Great Hall at the Gryffindor table, Andromeda, Sophie, Marcella, and their house-mates watched the debacle with much rejoicing, while those at the Slytherin table began pointing and whispering furiously at Abby as she swaggered back toward the Gryffindors.

_Serves that jerk right_, Andromeda chuckled to herself.

Without delay, a boy with short dark-brown hair got up from the Slytherin table and forcefully advanced toward the Gryffindor table.

"Listen here, Gryffindors," he barked, as he violently shook his fist at them, "I don't --"

"Aw, Stephane, put a sock in it, you blowhard," Abby bellowed curtly, cutting him off in mid-sentence. "Carrey did something wrong and needed to be punished for it. End of story. If you don't like it, go snivel to Professor Dippet!"

"Make like your robe... and split!"

"You are such a pompous retard!" Abby reciprocated, rolling her eyes at Stephane's lack of maturity. "Your gripe is with me, not them, so don't get your knickers in bunch!"

"It takes one to know one, you old hag."

"Oh, for the love of Merlin, Stephane... that's all you ever do is bitch," Abby complained. "Sadly, it's a shame that somewhere, you are depriving a village of an idiot."

The Gryffindors snickered loudly.

Rolling her eyes, she turned on her heels and stormed out of the Great Hall with Stephane following closely behind her, bellowing all the way. "We're not done here, Abby!" he shouted.

"Oh, I think we are!" she yelled back.

Gryffindor two, Slytherin nil! Andromeda thought, the corners of her mouth tugging up into a grin.

"Those two," a voice giggled. The girls looked around and saw Minerva McGonagall shaking her head, a smile on her face. "I remember in my first year, Stephane was always trying to ask Abby out on a date, but she'd turn him down each and every time. I have a feeling that he still likes her, though. It might be why they're always bickering."

"How so?" Andromeda inquired.

"Well," Minerva began, leaning into the table as to get closer to Andromeda, "since he hasn't been able to adequately express his true feelings for her, those feelings for her sort of turned into resentment. But I think he still likes her; it's not hard to notice if you watch him. It's the way he looks at her... it's... it's just there."

Andromeda and her friends snickered. "Ooh, unrequited love!"

"I can't believe that Stephane actually fancies someone -- especially Abby," Sophie replied in shock, raising her eyebrow. "If I remember correctly, last year during the first Quidditch match of the season, he knocked Abby out of the air with his broom."

"We are talking about Stephane here," Minerva answered, taking a sip from her cup. "He has his own... um... unique way of showing affection."

"Affliction should be more the word," Andromeda jested. This set them off laughing and caused Minerva to snort out her drink out through her nose, which just caused them laugh even harder.

_October 13th, 1939  
When I went to the library today to get some books for a homework assignment, I happened to see Tom and his friends through a space in one of the ledges. Considering I was just in the next section over, I couldn't help but listen in to what they were saying._  
--- 

"It says here that only the heir of Slytherin can open the Chamber of Secrets," a voice quoted, which Andromeda knew at once was Carrey's.

"Look at this," a different voice announced, one whom she guessed to belong to Murdoch. "It says here it's located somewhere within the school."

Carrey lowered his voice, and Andromeda had to strain to hear him. Leaning in closer to the bookshelf, she heard him say, "They say it's inhabited by a monster!"

"Really?" Tom and Murdoch inquired in hushed, but totally awestruck voices.

"Yes. They say it's supposed to be something very frightening... something horrifying!" Carrey answered matter of factly.

"How do you know?" Tom demanded.

"Father's told me all about it," he answered authoritatively, sticking out his chest. "Honestly, your ignorance is encyclopedic," he snapped.

From the other side, Andromeda couldn't help but let out a small gasp. A Chamber of Secrets? A monster? She wasn't quite sure what to make of this. As she pondered it, a small first year boy toddled into where Tom and his friends were.

"Hi!" he squeaked.

"Out!" Tom yelled, pointing his wand at him, causing the boy to tremble. A blue light shot out from Tom's wand, sending the boy scrambling away.

_Well, that was just rude!_ she thought as the small boy ran screaming by her and out of the library.  
Grabbing the rest of the books she needed, she turned around and left the aisle, only to have a near run-in with Tom.

"Oh, hi Andromeda," he murmured.

She returned the greeting, trying hard to hide the shock of what she had just heard and seen.

"I was just, uh, getting some books for the Transfiguration assignment," she replied quickly and left before he could reply.

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll see you in class then," he called after her.

Once she got back to Gryffindor common room, she pulled Sophie and Marcella into a vacant corner in the common room and asked them what they knew about the Chamber of Secrets.

"The only thing I've ever head about it was that it was supposed to be a myth," Sophie answered. "Why do you ask?"

Andromeda debated whether to tell her that it was Tom who had brought it up. Finally, she figured that telling her would be best. "I overheard Tom and his friends talking about it in the library today. Carrey said that a horrible monster is supposed to dwell within it. He boasted that his father knows a lot about it."

Sophie and Marcella looked at each other, Sophie raising her eyebrow in surprise. "I don't think Carrey's father even knows that much about it. Sounds like he only knows what's common knowledge, at least, what's common knowledge for those who do know about it," Sophie answered.

"He also said something about only the heir of Slytherin can open the Chamber. They were looking at some books about it," Andromeda added.

"Only the heir can open it?" Sophie repeated. "We really should ask Professor Dumbledore about it. He would probably know a lot about it." Marcella nodded her head vigorously in agreement.

"No! We can't!" Andromeda hissed quietly. "If we tell Dumbledore that I overheard Tom and his friends talking about it, he'll probably ask them, and then they'll know I heard their conversation!"

"I really wouldn't worry about it then," Marcella contributed as she looked around the common room, making sure no one could hear them. "I'm sure that the Chamber is just what Sophie said it is: a myth and nothing more."

Andromeda had to agree with them. The Chamber of Secrets was probably just some made-up place to scare First and Second years with.


	8. Chapter 8

_January 4th, 1940,  
Classes have started back up, and once again we're preparing for our end-of-year exams. I was talking to Abby earlier today, and she said that the end-of-year exams are nothing compared to the OWLs we take during our fifth year or the NEWTS during our seventh._  
---

Andromeda sat throughout their Potions class that day pondering their "fate" in fifth year. Of course, being in Potions offered little chance for her to think all that much about their OWLs. She was busy trying to make the Sleeping Potion their teacher had set them to. But whenever she got the chance to take a breather (usually while waiting for her potion to bubble), the thought of those fifth year tests would creep back into her mind.

When Panes had his back toward the class, Andromeda whispered to Sophie, who was her partner in making the Sleeping Potion, about the OWLs.

"At least we don't have to worry about them until our fifth year," Sophie whispered.

"True, but doesn't thinking about all the studying we have to do for them make you a _little_ nervous?" Andromeda whispered back.

Sophie nodded. "Yeah, I guess I am a little worried about them, but if we pay attention in our classes, then when the time comes, we'll be prepared for them."

_January 16th, 1940,  
We have another Quidditch game tonight. We're playing against Slytherin, and Abby has been working the entire team nonstop this past week. Every night has been nothing but practice, practice, practice, and more practice. It's a miracle I'm even able to finish my homework and get it in on time._  
---

"Okay guys. As you know, Gryffindor is in the lead, but Slytherin is close behind in second place. We can't afford to lose a single game, or we'll lose the Quidditch cup," Abby Bones grunted, pacing through the locker rooms that night before the game against Slytherin.

Abby then continued rambling, giving the team her mundane pre-game pep talk. Andromeda looked over at Carl Potter, who was pretending to be asleep, complete with fake snoring sounds. Abby walked over in front him of him and said, "You think this is funny? Do you want to lose to Slytherin tonight _and_ lose the Quidditch cup as well? Well, do you?"

Carl opened his eyes and looked up at Abby who was giving him a malevolent glower. "No Abby, I _do_ want to win," he said.

"Good," she replied. "Now let's go!"

The Gryffindors marched out of the locker room, each one dead on winning.

"Captains, shake hands," Professor Luchtig dictated. Stephane, wearing a smug grin, walked forward to Abby with his hand extended. "May the _best_ team win," he growled.

"I'm sure of it," Abby replied, through gritted teeth.

Andromeda scanned the Slytherin team and saw Tom looking back at her. His face was stony, and he was chewing his lip profusely. Looking away, she mounted her broom and pushed off into the air. Immediately Professor Luchtig released the balls, and Markus Goyle from Slytherin grabbed the Quaffle or more likely snatched it from Abby's clutches.

He sailed through to the Gryffindors side and tried to score, but Aaron Wood was able to stop him.

"A nice save there from Gryffindor Keeper Aaron Wood!" Patrick yelled.

"Girls, let's play a little trick on the Slytherins," Abby said to Maria and Andromeda. "Listen up. I'll snatch the Quaffle from Markus -- I know his weak spot -- but I'll pass it to you, Maria, and then you pass it to Andromeda. Try and score."

"Let's go!" Maria and Andromeda chimed.

Abby, Maria, and Andromeda put their plan into action. Abby, while being chased by the Slytherin Beaters, threw the Quaffle to Maria, who carried it part way down the field. When the Slytherins began chasing her, she passed it to Andromeda, who was able to score their first goal of the game.

"Good work, girls!" Abby exclaimed. Maria and Andromeda high-fived each other. Meanwhile, Stephane was diligently planning his revenge. He glanced over at Tom, who was busy sending the Bludger down toward a Gryffindor player. Suddenly an evil plan took shape in his head.

"Tom!" he yelled, getting the attention of the boy flying below him."You're about to learna hard and difficult lesson in Quidditch: Injuries... are... _inevitable_... even to the best of players."

When the Bludger came back, Stephane used all his strength to hit the Bludger so hard toward Andromeda that it knocked into the tail end of her broom, forcing the broom handle up into her stomach.

"_Andromeda_!" screamed Abby as Andromeda went spiraling down toward the ground, the air knocked out of her. Before anyone could do anything, Andromeda hit the ground with a loud thud. Abby called a timeout and flew down to where Andromeda lay motionless on the ground. Maria and the rest of the Gryffindor team were right behind her. Only one other person flew down as well... Tom.

"She's been knocked out," Aaron Wood said, checking her pulse. "No doubt from the hard fall she took."

"Good going with the Bludger, Tom, you jerk!" screamed Maria. "You just knocked your own sister out!"

"I... it wasn't me who sent it," he stammered. "Stephane..."

Aaron held up his hand to quiet them both down, but unfortunately he couldn't drown out the boos that were emerging from the crowd. He bent over and picked Andromeda up and headed to the hospital wing with Tom and the other Gryffindors behind him.

Abby ran over to Professor Luchtig "I'll be back in a few," she said. Professor Luchtig nodded as Abby ran to catch up with the rest of the team, who were already in the castle.

By the time Abby found them, the team was seated beside Andromeda in the hospital wing.

"How... is... she," struggled Abby, trying to catch her breath after literally running all the way.

"She's still out," Maria replied. "Obviously she won't be able to play the rest of the game tonight... or any game until she's awake."

Abby knelt down beside Andromeda. She scowled across the bed at Tom, who wore an unreadable expression on his face. He left the hospital wing just before Michellina came into the room and asked everyone to leave, saying that the other patients (and Andromeda) needed their rest. Sadly, the team slowly got up and left the hospital wing. Once they made it back out to the Quidditch field, Abby had a determined look on her face.

"Let's win this game for Andromeda."

_January 31st, 1940,  
I woke from my coma two days after that Quidditch game. When news of my wakening spread, Sophie and Marcella were the first people to see me. They informed me that Gryffindor pummeled Slytherin four-hundred and fifty to one-hundred..._  
---

"It was extraordinary!" Sophie recounted, her eyes growing wide as she told Andromeda the tale. "The Slytherins didn't know what hit them... uh, no pun intended," she quickly added.

Andromeda laughed. Since that game, there had been no other Quidditch games involving Gryffindor. In that time, Andromeda slowly got back into the habit of homework and Quidditch practices, although Abby was reluctant to take Andromeda back so soon after her injury. After much persuasion, Abby agreed, and Andromeda was back on the team.

"I wish you could have seen what happened after the game," Marcella snickered. "Professor Dumbledore deducted seventy-five points from Slytherin for _'extreme poor sportsmanship and an obvious attempt to seriously hurt a young player'_." 

Sophie laughed. "You really should have seen Stephane's face. I thought his jaw was going to hit the floor! The Slytherins tried to dispute it; however, Professor Dippet agreed with Dumbledore and so Slytherin is still seventy-five points behind where they were before that game."

Andromeda laughed so hard that she fell out of the chair she was sitting in. This bit of news was too hilarious! "How did Tom take it?" she inquired.

Sophie and Marcella looked at each other. "Well... we're not too sure. He left the field as soon as he could, so we never got a chance to talk to him. But Abby did tell us he was in the hospital wing when you were first brought there. She told us he had an indecipherable look on his face."

They both shrugged, as they didn't know quite what to make of it.

_February 14th, 1940,  
Abby has been preparing us for the upcoming Quidditch match against none other than the Slytherins themselves. We'll be playing them for the Quidditch cup sometime in March. It'll be the first time we've played them since my accident._  
---

"Professor Luchtig has promised me that nothing will go wrong and if any of those slimy Slytherins pull another stunt like that again, she'll disqualify them," Abby informed Andromeda as they walked into the Great Hall on Valentine's Day morning.

They walked up to their table and sat down as the morning's mail began to arrive. The only thing Andromeda received was _The Daily Prophet._ After paying the owl a bronze knut, she opened the paper began reading. For the last few weeks they had been reporting about a Muggle war that has been going on. She knew that wars were atrocious, but this one must have been exceptionally horrible in order for a wizard newspaper to report it. Andromeda avidly read the newspaper while she ate breakfast.

Afterwards, since it was a Sunday, Andromeda could spend the whole day doing whatever she wanted. Eventually she decided to head to the library to prepare for the upcoming final exams.

As she made her way to the library, she ran into Sophie and Marcella, who had just returned from the common room.

"Are you studying for the year end exams, too?" Andromeda inquired.

"Yeah," Sophie replied. "We thought we should try and study harder for them. My parents weren't too pleased last year with my mediocre marks," she said as they went into the library together.

Meanwhile, Tom and his friends, Carrey and Murdoch, were also in the library -- but they weren't studying. They were huddled close together next to the Restricted Section. Luckily, Andromeda and her friends didn't see them as Tom and his friends looked like they didn't want to be bothered.

"How do we get in there?" Tom asked. 

"Easily," Carrey replied, holding up a piece of paper in his hand. "A permission slip," he said, proudly waving around the slip of paper. "Professor Panes was more than willing to give this to me when I said I needed it to study."

"Didn't he ask why a second year would need to study in the Restricted Section?" Tom asked.

Carrey sighed. "It's not the point, Riddle. The fact is, we can now do more searching on the Chamber of Secrets. We'll probably have much better luck looking in there." They went up to Madam Zuzellam's desk, who, with a questioning look in her eyes, reluctantly unlocked the door and let them into the Restricted Section.

"Where do we begin looking?" Tom asked.

"I don't know," Carrey admitted.

"Well if that isn't just _great_! We finally get into the Restricted Section, and you don't even know where to begin looking," Murdoch muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Listen here, Black, _do you_know where to look?" Carrey shot back. Murdoch didn't reply, he just continued to walk ahead, ignoring Carrey as if he wasn't even there. Carrey grumbled.

They walked deeper into the room, each one glancing at the titles of books on the shelves. One of the books there caught Tom's attention. He stopped and picked it up.

"_Famous Dark Wizards of the Last Two Centuries_," Tom muttered, quietly reading the title of the book. He opened it up and inside, a name caught his attention -- _Grindelwald_. Suddenly, he remembered Andromeda telling him about Grindelwald back during the Christmas holidays. They believed him to be responsible for the murder of an entire wizarding family. Tom couldn't bring himself to put the book down, so he continued reading it while he walked.

It stated that Grindelwald had once gone to Hogwarts, but upon the year of his graduation, he sank deeply into the Dark Arts. Once he left school, he became the first Dark Lord in England in many, many years.

"Hey Tom, what are you looking at?" Carrey demanded, suddenly snapping Tom out of his little daydream. It was like he had become hypnotized by reading that book.

"Uh, I was just looking at this one book here," he mumbled, carefully placing the book underneath his arm. They continued searching for something, anything that could tell them more about the Chamber of Secrets.

Back inside the main library, Andromeda and her friends were reading about the goblin revolutions recently talked about in their History of Magic class.

"This... is... _so_ boring," sighed Sophie as she looked over the stack of books in front of her.

"I know," Andromeda replied, equally bored, "but we have to study it for the upcoming exams."

Looking over her stack of books, she sighed heavily. "There sure have been a lot of books written about it." Opening the next book in her stack, she began to read.

After about an hour of studying the boring history of the goblin revolutions, Andromeda threw down her book and sighed loudly. "I don't know about you, but I think we should look at something different." Marcella and Sophie wholeheartedly agreed, nodding their heads fervently.

"Let's look at something a little more interesting," Andromeda said. "Maybe we can practice our Charms, or something." She got up from the table and went to find some books on Charms. By that time, Tom and his friends had reemerged from the Restricted Section. Tom was carrying a stack of thick books in his arms.

"I'll see you guys later!" Tom said, turning to face his friends. He walked backwards, trying to balance the heavy books in his arms. This unfortunately prevented him from seeing where he was going. He took a tentative step backwards and stumbled into someone. His books went crashing loudly to the ground along with someone else's.

He turned around. "Andromeda!" he exclaimed.

"Tom! What are you doing here? Andromeda asked, returning the same amount of shock.

"I was just getting some books," he muttered as he scurried to pick back up the books he'd dropped. Andromeda knelt down and began picking up her books. She found and grabbed her Charms books, and went to pick up what she thought was her book until she read the title, _Famous Dark Wizards of the Last Two Centuries_. Before the title could even fully register in Andromeda's head, Tom roughly jerked the book out of her hands and stomped off. As she slowly got up, something clicked in her head.

_That book_, she thought, _was about Dark Wizards._ Andromeda had a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach. _Why would he want a book on Dark Wizards? Could it just be mere curiosity... or something more sinister than that?_

Sighing, she stood back up and gloomily walked back to the table where Sophie and Marcella were waiting. She plopped back down in her seat and remained quiet throughout the rest of their studying, leaving her friends to wonder why she was acting so strange all of the sudden.

_February 17th, 1940,  
Seeing Tom with that book the other day in the library is still weighing heavily on my mind. I can't help but feel that he really is being 'corrupted' by the dreadful people he is in contact with daily., those rotten Slytherins._

I've also noticed subtle changes in him as well. He used to say 'hi' to me whenever we passed by each other. Now when he says it, it's barely even audible. Whenever we share a class, he used to wait for me when it was over, and we would leave together. Now he is one of the first to leave with his Slytherin friends. We hardly even talk anymore.

I can't help but wonder why?  
---

"Remember class, you should start practicing for your final exams," Professor Dumbledore reminded his class as they prepared to leave Transfiguration. Sophie, Marcella, and Andromeda hung back from the rest of the crowd, something they normally did as Tom would occasionally wait for them and they would walk out of class together. But today Tom was one of the first people to leave the classroom.

Andromeda slowly packed her books away as not to draw attention to the fact that she was one of the last to leave, one of the things she usually did when she and her brother shared a class so they could meet up outside afterwards.

Picking up her bag with her books in it, she flung it over her shoulder and looked up with a smile at her friends, but they were wearing a look of uncomfortable sorrow. They shuffled their feet and clasped their hands together as they led Andromeda out of the classroom. Once they got away from the classroom, Sophie cleared her throat and said with a terrible note of sadness in her voice, "Tom didn't wait for you today."

"He... he was one of the first to leave the class," Marcella chimed in, her voice equally bleak.

Andromeda must have looked crestfallen because Marcella and Sophie both sighed heavily. In a way, Andromeda should have known that Tom wasn't going to wait for her. She had begun to notice over the last few months that he seemed to be avoiding her for the most part.

"We're so sorry," Sophie whispered, as Andromeda looked at her friends.

"It's quite all right. I mean, who would want to hang out with their sister, after all?" She gave a weak laugh to show her friends that she didn't mind it at all, but inside it was a completely different story. Inside, she felt very depressed.


	9. Chapter 9

_March 2nd, 1940,  
Winter is slowly disappearing as spring makes its yearly appearance. Unfortunately the days have become extremely windy, which makes Quidditch practice much more interesting._

In a little over a week and a half we'll play our final Quidditch match of the season. It's again a rematch of Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. Abby has vowed to make sure I am well protected this time, but I assured her that the Slytherin team would have to be really stupid to try and pull that stunt with me again.  
---

"Okay guys!" Abby yelled, her mouth full of her own hair. Though it was an exceedingly windy day, Quidditch practice still went on. Abby had insisted that they practice in the wind; that way, if it should still be windy during the Quidditch cup, they'd be prepared.

"First thing we need to do is... (Abby grunted)... be able to see! For the love of Merlin, will this wind just lighten up a little?" she yelled like a maniac into the wind. Carl and Aaron laughed. They thought Abby fussing with her hair and yelling at the wind was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. Abby just glared at them.

Once she finally managed to get her hair to stay in control, she mounted her broom and flew into the air. Andromeda followed, along with the other members of the team. "We've got to learn how to work in weather like this," Abby said. "Let's divide into teams and play a match against each other."

Everyone followed her orders and the practice began. Unbeknownst to them, some Slytherins, including Tom, Carrey, and Murdoch, were sitting in the stands watching the game.

"Look at them," Carrey said with a sneer. "They've got their precious Chaser back, but Slytherin will show them who's boss next week at the Quidditch finale." 

Murdoch laughed. "The Gryffindors are a bunch of gits, right Tom? Tom?"

Tom wasn't answering. He was deeply engaged in watching the game, but on the other hand, he didn't know what to say, so he pretended not to hear them.

"Hey! Excuse me, Thomas Riddle!" Murdoch yelled, waving his hands in front of Tom's face.

"What?"

"Did you hear what I just said?" Murdoch replied briskly.

Tom bit his tongue. "No," he lied. "I was watching the game... before you two _interrupted_."

"Well, while you were enjoying your little trip into la-la land, Murdoch and I were talking about how Slytherin is going to beat those Gryffindors next Saturday," Carrey said.  
"And just so they know what to expect," he said, bending over his seat to pull something out, "we'll be bringing this out."

He was holding a large banner in his hands. Together he and Murdoch unrolled it and held it high above their heads. Up in the sky, Andromeda was the first to see the awful poster. They had enchanted it to show seven stick figures wearing red being chased by a large green dragon breathing fire onto them. It changed scenes and the next one showed a stick figure in red with dark black hair (a crude likeness of Andromeda) being knocked off her broom by a Bludger.

Andromeda thought the whole idea was really evil and sick. But what was worse was that Carrey and Murdoch were holding up the banner, and Tom was sitting between them, trying hard not to laugh.

"Abby, did you see that?" Andromeda exclaimed, pointing to the rude banner below them. Abby flew over to where Andromeda was. Pursing her mouth in disgust, she glared intensely at the banner. "The nerve of them," she muttered.

Carrey and Murdoch looked up in time to see Andromeda and Abby flying above them. Carrey, with a free hand, gestured to his poster and yelled, "Hey! Like our new banner?"

Abby turned and gave him a hand gesture of her own, one that shocked Andromeda as much as it had Carrey and Murdoch. They sat there with their mouths handing open like a couple of idiots. Andromeda glanced down and saw that Tom, his head slightly tilted, was wide-eyed and seemed to have a slightly entertained look on his face.

Andromeda and Abby left the boys (two of which were still sitting dumbstruck over what just happened) and continued practicing.

_March 14th, 1940,  
It's around noon and everyone is slowly starting to wake up. Gryffindor won the Quidditch cup last night, and everyone stayed up late to celebrate.  
I awoke with a bad headache, probably because I had too many sweets before going to bed. This sugar-induced headache led me to have another nightmare..._  
---

Andromeda was in the middle of a cemetery late at night. Looking around, her eyes fell upon a large mansion on a hill.  
_I must be near Little Hangleton!_

She heard voices off in the distance and, letting curiosity get the better of her, went to see who they belonged to. Making her way through the darkness with only the moon giving her light, she followed the voices and came upon a large clearing in the cemetery where there were some trees to offer her protection from being seen. There were a large group of people in the graveyard, so she hid behind a large tree to see what was going on.

The group of people were all wearing long, hooded robes, but there was one person who stood in front of all the others. He was short and squat and was carrying what appeared to be a small bundle. He placed it inside a cauldron and began reading from a piece of paper. Andromeda looked further to her left and saw a young boy wearing school robes like herself. He looked to be a bit older than she was. He was tied to a large tomb stone, bound and gagged. Her jaw nearly hit the floor.   
_What on earth is going on here?_ she wondered.

Suddenly she heard the short person speak. He sounded like he was reciting a spell, but it was one she never heard before. The recital was suddenly interrupted when the person speaking it pulled something out from inside his hooded robe and let out a loud sob. Something fell into the cauldron with a deep thump, and the person began whimpering uncontrollably. When he held his arm up, she noticed that there was no hand... it was a stump, covered in his dark robe. In the moon light, she saw that it looked to be covered in... _blood_!

A gruesome realization dawned upon Andromeda. That deep thump she just heard must have been his severed hand. Andromeda leaned down to the ground and vomited.  
As the whimpering person continued reciting the bizarre spell, something white and powdery floated out of the grave that they tied the young boy to. The powdery substance flew into the cauldron, which gave an odd, bubbling sound. The person walked over to the boy and grabbed the dagger he had used to cut his hand off.

Andromeda gasped: She knew what he was going to do... he was going to kill the boy. She stood still, too scared to move.  
The person carrying the dagger drew closer to the boy. He reached out and grabbed the boy's arm, and with the dagger, he cut his arm.  
The boy let out a loud scream of pain as blood dribbled down his arm. Taking a small vile, the hooded figure filled it with some of the boy's blood and dropped it into the cauldron, which took on an eerie glow before something started to emerge from within... something that absolutely terrified Andromeda. She tried to move but found she was stuck to the ground.

It was suddenly getting warmer, and there was a bright light in her eyes... it was the sun. It was now daytime, and she was safely in her bed, unharmed... apart from the splitting headache she had. Rolling over, she got out of bed and looked over at Sophie and Marcella, who were both still sleeping soundly. Andromeda tried her best to get dressed quietly, while replaying the horrific images from her dream over and over in her head.

_April 11th, 1940,  
Tom has been in a bit of an irritable mood this past week. Whenever I see him, he avoids me at all costs. During the times I have talked to him, he's snappish and seems not to want to be bothered with me. I wish I knew what was going on with him!_  
---

"Andromeda, do you feel like doing any studying after dinner tonight?" Sophie asked as they left their Easter dinner in the Great Hall. Andromeda didn't reply; she was in deep thought. Lately it seemed that her brother was in a miserable mood.

Though she tried talking to him, it went without success. He avoided her, and whenever he saw her coming down a hallway, he'd walk into a room until she past him. This was making Andromeda angry. If she had done something to upset him, she'd certainly like to know what it was so she could avoid making that mistake again.

Over all, it had been an unhappy Easter vacation for Andromeda. She couldn't wait for classes to begin again so it would take her mind off these depressing turn of events.

_April 30th, 1940,  
A most peculiar thing happened to me today while I was sitting by the lake with Sophie and Marcella..._  
---

The day started out as any other day in April had begun: warm and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. That day Andromeda and her friends decided to head down to the lake and enjoy the refreshing water.

"It's so nice out today," sighed Marcella, as she took off her shoes and socks and splashed her feet around in the water. Andromeda and Sophie agreed as they each took of their shoes and socks as well. Andromeda layed back on the grass and closed her eyes... she could soon feel herself starting to nod off.

"Wake up, Andromeda!" Sophie exclaimed, shaking her friend awake. Andromeda woke with a start and before she could even ask what was wrong, she looked up at the sky and saw it had turned a dark, ominous gray. A big storm was brewing!  
_That's impossible_, she thought. _How could a storm come on so fast?_

It started getting windy and they could hear lightning striking off in the distance. "We've got to head back to the castle!" cried Marcella. Andromeda got up from the ground and looked up at the clouds. Up in the sky, swirls of gray were everywhere. She couldn't help but stare at the approaching storm as her friends tugged on her arms, trying to get her to move. But Andromeda continued staring at the clouds, almost in a trance.

Something up there had caught her eye... a face... a face in clouds! It was staring back at her. The face had slits for both eyes and nose and a small thin line for a mouth. Its small mouth curved up into a small grin as it stared down at Andromeda. She turned around to see if her friends could see the face too, but there was nobody there with her -- it was like they had just disappeared.  
_But there's no way they could have run back to the castle that fast!_

Andromeda's heart began to beat faster, and she was beginning to feel a little bit scared. Whatever was going on here was not normal.  
It started getting dark all around her, like the clouds were encasing her in their darkness. Her heart felt like it was inside her throat. She couldn't swallow, and her breath was caught in her lungs.

The face in the clouds was coming closer to her. Its malevolent smirk was now grinning broadly at her. She felt herself being lifted off the ground and into the air. The dark clouds surrounded her, and she began coughing, it was filling her lungs like a noxious gas.

She tried to yell for it to stop, but she couldn't speak, though she struggled to break free. Something was holding her in place, and she could hear laughter. A deep voice boomed loudly in her ears: "You and your brother are mine, Andromeda!"  
_No!_ she thought. _I won't let you! NO!_

Evil laughter filled the air around her. She felt like she was drowning. Water was filling up all around her, and it would be mere minutes before she could not breathe. Water was splashing on her face and the sun was becoming progressively brighter...

Wait a minute, she thought. _The sun?_

Andromeda opened her eyes again and saw that there was no more evil face, dark clouds, booming laughter, or water filling her lungs. Bringing her hand up to her face, she felt that it really was wet. Slowly sitting up, she saw that her friends were the only ones surrounding her now. They were looking very frightened.

"What happened?" Andromeda asked groggily, her voice hoarse.

"I don't know. You went to sleep, and you were fine for a minute or two, but then you started fidgeting around and muttering 'No! No!'" Sophie replied, her eyes widening. "Are you all right?"  
Andromeda nodded. "I think I'd like to go back to the castle now."

Gingerly she put her socks and shoes back on and slowly started to stand, but she was too weak to be upright on her own and almost falling back down again.

"We'll help you walk back to the castle," Marcella said, putting Andromeda's arm over her shoulder. Sophie did the same. Together they helped Andromeda back to the castle.

"We're almost there," Sophie announced, pushing open the main entrance with her free hand. Andromeda gave her friends a weak, but grateful smile.

Upon making their way to the main entrance, Tom, Carrey, and Murdoch met them there. Both Carrey and Murdoch sauntered off into the Great Hall without even asking if Andromeda was okay, but Tom hung back.

"Is she okay?" he asked, his eyes widening slightly. Sophie and Marcella nodded.  
"Do you need me to —"  
"Hey Tom, get back here!" yelled Carrey, sticking his head back out of the Great Hall's door.  
"Yeah!" intoned Murdoch. "Dinner's about to begin!"

Tom looked at his friends, then back to Andromeda and her two human supports. Biting his lip, he quickly glanced at Andromeda again and then walked off to join his friends in the Great Hall. If Andromeda hadn't felt so weak, she would have wondered why he didn't stay and help her. Instead, her friends continued their way back to the Gryffindor common room.

_May 12th, 1940,  
The end-of-year exams are coming closer and everyone in the school is becoming progressively more highly-strung. But the ones who are the most nervous are the one's who have OWLs and NEWTs this year._

Apart from the test anxiety, things have been relatively normal around here -- "relatively" being the key word here. I've been seeing less and less of Tom lately. Whenever I see him in the library, he always buries his face in a stack of books. It's utterly disgusting how he spends all his free time either reading or hanging out with Carrey and Murdoch. Not once in the last few months has he given me more than five minutes of his time.

Oh, dear Merlin, I'm becoming jealous of Carrey and Murdoch! Somebody, please save me NOW!  
---

It was approaching dusk one evening as Andromeda sat next to a window in the Gryffindor common room writing in her diary. Sophie was busy writing a report for Charms at the table across the room, and Marcella was diligently rereading her notes from the past year. Andromeda had already finished her homework and was now free to do as she pleased. One of the things she loved doing in her spare time was writing in her diary.

Meanwhile, across the castle and down in the darkest part of Hogwarts, sat Tom in the Slytherin common room reading a book he had just gotten from the library.

"Bloody hell, Tom, is that all you do is read?" Carrey asked, emerging from the boys dormitories. Tom looked up from his book, his eyes narrowing slightly and his jaw firmly positioned.

"I just find this really interesting," he snapped. "Besides, we've got exams coming up in a few weeks."

"Whatever," Carrey replied nonchalantly. "I'm not worried about them. Are you?" He sat at the table next to Tom. "You probably aren't, since you and your good for nothing brainy sister are the smartest kids at Hogwarts."

Tom put his book down and scowled at Carrey. "Don't you call my sister that! Take it back!" he shouted, waving his wand threateningly at Carrey. Carrey was a bit taken aback by Tom's sudden outburst.

"Fine, fine, whatever. I take it back. _Sorry_," he said abruptly. Carrey got back up from the table and left Tom sitting there. He immediately went back to reading his book.

_June 3rd, 1940,  
We took our exams today. Unfortunately, we have to wait until summer, sometime in July to be exact, before we find out how we did. The suspense is absolutely awful._

One good bit of news to report is that Abby showed me a great spell. It's a spell that can make something expand in size, but still have it keep its original shape. I practiced the spell on my diary, and now I won't ever run out of pages with which to write. I thanked Abby for showing it to me.  
---

Ten days had passed and it was time for the students at Hogwarts to leave for the summer. This was the part that most everyone loved: to have the time to do anything they wanted. But this was also the time Andromeda and Tom hated the most because they had to spend three long months at the orphanage.

"Welcome students to the end of year feast!" Professor Dippet said jovially at dinner. Professor Dippet had just given his routine speech, then finally announced the standings for the House Cup. Just like the year before, Gryffindor won the Cup. Everyone seated at Gryffindor table cheered and celebrated their second straight win. Of course, this lead to some heavy jeering from the Slytherin side.

The evening went on and they ate many delicious foods. Before anyone knew it, the feast was over and Professor Dippet ordered the students back to their respective Houses. He wanted everyone to get a good nights rest for the next morning when the Hogwarts Express would take them back home for the summer vacation.

Back in the girls' dormitories, Andromeda gloomily packed her suitcase as the thought of going back to the orphanage filled her head. Deep inside she wished that she could just spend the summer months here at Hogwarts; she knew that Tom would whole heartedly agree with her. She would bring this up with Tom when she would see him the next morning.


	10. Chapter 10

_August 31st, 1940,  
We're back at Hogwarts now. It was a long,drawn out summer, complete with more misery served by Madame Westyn. I'm glad that we're finally back at Hogwarts again._

Everyday while we were at that vile place, Tom and I would count down the days until we would return to school. August couldn't arrive soon enough for us.  
---

Tom, Andromeda, and the other students entering the Great Hall found seats at their house tables, which were quickly filling with students. Tom headed over toward the Slytherins while Andromeda joined Sophie and Marcella at the Gryffindor table.

"Where were you?" Marcella asked as Andromeda sat down next to her. "We lost you in the crowds when we left the train. We thought if we waited by the carriages for you, we'd see you. But after a while we figured you must have left without us."

"Sorry for making you two wait," apologized Andromeda. "When I got off the train, I saw Tom, and I went to go see him. When we headed over to the carriages, I looked around for you two, but I guess by then you had already left. But I appreciated having the chance to talk to him, as Carrey or Murdoch weren't anyplace around."

"Besides Tom, you didn't get stuck with any other Slytherins on your ride, did you?" Sophie asked.

Andromeda shook her head. "No, we got seated with a couple of second year Hufflepuffs. You?"

"Thankfully no," Sophie replied, very relieved. "We sat with Minerva McGonagall, Hannah Evans, and Peter Longbottom."  
Continuing their little chat about their ride over to the school, they stopped when Professor Dippet stood up to announce the start of term.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts! We will begin our feast shortly, but coming up beforehand will be the Sorting."  
Everyone in the Great Hall clapped listlessly as most were too hungry to care who got put in what house. As the clapping died away, Professor Dippet started to look rather uncomfortable.

"It's unfortunate that I, uh, must inform you that your Transfiguration teacher and Gryffindor Head of House, Professor Dumbledore, is... uh... won't be here for part of the school year."

Murmurs spread throughout the Great Hall. Someone from the end of Gryffindor table yelled out why. Professor Dippet, who was starting to sweat now, rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and answered rather tentatively, "It's important business. Nothing that students need to worry themselves about."

He turned to face behind him and saw that the first years had arrived. Professor Dippet looked relieved by the distraction and glad that no one else could ask about Dumbledore's mysterious disappearance.

"Let's, uh, begin the, uh, the Sorting ceremonies," he mumbled, once again taking his seat at the long table.  
One by one, the first years lined up and faced an old, frayed hat that sat upon a decrepit stool.

Andromeda, Sophie, and Marcella gave each other a worried glance as the noise of the Sorting ceremony took place. This was certainly not a good way to start out the school year. How bad could this business be that required Dumbledore to miss part of the school year? It left an icy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Andromeda looked around the Great Hall and saw that the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were also looking a bit concerned. Needless to say, it did not seem to bother the Slytherins in the slightest, or at least the ones she _could_ see from where she was sitting.

"Dear old Dumbles has gone an gotten himself lost, has he?" Stephane quipped. A wide grin appeared on his face and a fake tone of concern was present in his voice. The whole Slytherin table erupted into boisterous laughter.

"Imbeciles," Abby muttered as she pulled up a seat across from Andromeda and her friends at Gryffindor table.

"Hi Abby," Andromeda greeted.

"Hello Andromeda," she replied, her face suddenly taking on a mysterious smile. "Notice anything new about me?"   
Andromeda leaned in for a closer look and saw her friend wearing a 'Head Girl' badge.

"You're _Head Girl_!" the girls exclaimed.  
"That's fantastic!" Marcella complimented. Abby's face suddenly turned as red as her hair.

"Thanks guys," she mumbled. "Unfortunately, there's a downfall to this." Andromeda and her friends looked at her inquisitively. They wondered what the downfall to something so wonderful was.

"I have to spend more time with... _him_!" Abby complained, scrunching up her nose as she pointed over to the Slytherin table at Stephane Lestrange.

"Stephane got named Head Boy and so...," Abby continued taking a deep breath, "you see the predicament I'm in."  
Looking once more at the Slytherin table, she gave an involuntary shudder. Thinking about it was just too much for her...

"Well anyway," Abby continued cheerfully, trying to change the subject, "the Sorting ceremonies seem to have started. Good thing too, I'm starved!

The entire Great Hall watched the loads of First year students being sorted (from Avery, Uilliam in Slytherin, to Crouch, Bartemius in Ravenclaw) into the different houses. One of the students waiting to be sorted caught Andromeda's eye immediately, and apparently the eye of the entire Great Hall. He was so much different from the other students... a _lot_ different.

Towering over all of the First years, he was so tall, and he could've seen eye to eye with some of the full-grown adult teachers. Andromeda couldn't believe that this boy was a soon-to-be First year student.

His name was called from the list and he approached the stool. He sat down awkwardly on it as it was much to small for him. The stool gave a loud creak and the tattered hat was placed on his large head, where it sat for a moment before moving. Andromeda couldn't hear what the hat was saying, but it eventually yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!"

Everyone at Gryffindor table applauded for their new house mate as the big First year boy came over to the table. Several Fourth year students had to squeeze together to accommodate the new, extremely large person.

"G'day," he grunted shyly as he sat down next to Marcella, whom was being crushed sideways into Minerva McGonagall. Two First years gasped and looked frightened, but Andromeda wasn't scared of him; she was merely curious about him. Even Abby, normally cool, calm and collected, looked a bit surprised. Her eyes grew very wide, but she was able to regain her composure.

"Um, welcome to Gryffindor house," she announced, "I'm Abby, Head Girl and Prefect," upon which she then introduced him to the people around the table. "So, uh, what's your name?"

"Rubeus Hagrid," the new boy answered gruffly.

Once the feast was over with, Professor Dippet stood up once more to address the school. As he turned to face a gray-haired woman, he announced, "Everyone, please welcome Professor Jamison." Murmurs again went through the Great Hall.

"She will be filling in for Professor Dumbledore as Head of Gryffindor house and Transfiguration teacher until he returns. Now that we've eaten and drank til our hearts content, let's all head to bed!"

_September 3rd, 1940,  
Most dreadful news awaited me this morning in the Great Hall..._  
---

As Andromeda made her way down to the Gryffindor table for breakfast, she was met with a barrage of murmurs and whispers.

"Did you hear?!" Marcella asked as Andromeda sat down at the table. She shook her head no, she hadn't heard anything on her way down.

"England has just declared a Muggle war."

Marcella handed Andromeda someone's copy of _The Daily Prophet_, and right there on the front of the paper in large print read:

**"Muggle England Declares War Against Muggle Germany. German wizarding school, Durmstrang, under attack."**

She handed the paper back to Marcella and asked, "How could a Muggle war affect the wizarding world?"

"I don't know, but it sounds awful."

By then, Sophie had squeezed her way into the table right beside Andromeda.

"I was just talking to a Ravenclaw girl, and she heard that they are evacuating many Muggle children to the countryside."

"Really?" Andromeda enquired.

"Um-hmm."

That morning, nobody ate breakfast in peace as every so often someone would bring up the subject again.

"Who's this Hitler person?"

"I don't know, but he sounds a lot like Grindelwald."

_September 6th, 1940,  
This school year has become the hardest yet, and we're hardly a week into it. At the end of last year, we had to make a choice on which classes we wanted to take for this semester. I picked Muggle studies, Divination, and Aritmancy (which is something Tom is taking as well). Marcella and Sophie picked the same as well._

Along with my other classes, I've become very worn down from all the extra work. I hope I can get through all this...  
---

In Monday afternoon, Andromeda and her friends had their second ever Divination class at the top of the tower. Together the girls walked up the long and narrow, winding staircase that lead to Professor Sanderson's Divination classroom.

"Welcome everyone,"said Professor Sanderson, a tall, sandy-haired haired woman. "Class will begin as soon as the other students arrive."

Andromeda, Sophie, and Marcella found a table toward the front of the class that had three chintz chairs.  
Slowly the rest of the class trickled in, and Professor Sanderson began the day's lessons.

"First we'll continue our work from the last time we were here," she began. Their work from the previous time had been reading tea leaves. Professor Sanderson set out to hand each student a teapot and set of cups. When Andromeda got theirs, they immediately set to work.

Following Sanderson's instructions, they brewed the tea, then while it was still hot, Andromeda took the first sip. After draining the tea from the cup, the only thing left inside was a bunch of wet, mushy tea leaves.

"What do you suppose that looks like?" Andromeda asked, looking at the soggy mess in her cup. Sophie took the cup from her and peered inside.

"It... it sort of looks like a... _heart_," she said. Sophie handed over the cup to Marcella, and she peeked inside.

"Nah, I'd say it looks more like a cat."

Andromeda pulled out her book _Unfogging the Future_ from under the table and opened it.

"It says here," she began, "that a heart shape means that someone will fall in love with you within the next year. A cat, on the other hand, means that someone close to you will betray you and become traitor. In layman's terms: treachery. Hmm, definitely not a good sign."

She grabbed the cup from Marcella and looked inside. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she realized that it most definitely looked like a cat.

"Who do you think will turn traitor on you?" Sophie asked with widening eyes.

"I don't know," Andromeda replied, looking at her book again to make sure she had read the description right. Something about it didn't seem right to her...

"Well it won't be us!" Marcella told her defiantly. "We'll be friends forever!"

Andromeda smiled at both of them, but inwardly, she was deeply concerned. Who could betray her and become a traitor?  
She started reeling off names inside her head: _Abby... Minerva... No_ she thought. _It couldn't be them. The description said 'someone close to you,' meaning close friends or... family..._

Her mind suddenly shifted to Tom, but why would _he_ betray her? _Sure, he's hanging out with those Slytherins, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. He couldn't possibly be bad... could he?_ she thought worriedly.

"Are we having any problems here?" Professor Sanderson asked as she stood before Andromeda and her friends' table.

"We're not too sure what this shape is," Andromeda answered, rather more shakily than she meant to sound. Professor Sanderson took the cup from Andromeda's hands and peered inside.

"It looks to me like a crab, which is very bad news, my dear. A crab means there is an enemy nearby."

As if this were the norm, she gently placed the cup back on the table and went around the room to see if anyone else needed help. Andromeda glanced over at her friends.

_Traitor? Treachery? An enemy nearby?_

She sat through the rest of Divination class thinking it over, trying to piece together the pieces.

_What could all this possibly mean?_

_September 7th, 1940,  
I feel absolutely awful! My head is spinning, my stomach is tight, and I feel as if somebody has placed a tourniquet around my chest. All these symptoms came upon me after I awoke from my most recent nightmare..._  
---

_"... someone will betray you... turn traitor... Someone will betray you... turn traitor..."_

These words kept replaying over and over in her head as she went to sleep that night. Swirls of gray mist clouded her brain as a tall dark figure appeared in the mists. It walked closer and became more visible. The figure was wearing a hooded robe covering its face as it began making a hissing sound... almost like a snake.

_"I smell blood... Mudbloods better beware... someone will betray you... turn traitor... the heir will come..." _

The voice echoed loudly in her ear. It spooked her to know that she could understand its incessant hissing.

"No," she whispered. "No!"

_"Someone will betray you! The heir has come at last!"_  
Andromeda started tossing and turning in her bed. "Someone will betray you... turn traitor...," she muttered over and over again in her sleep. _"No..."_

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she jolted awake.

"Andromeda, wake up! You're talking in your sleep!"

Rolling over, she saw Sophie standing by her bed.  
"Sophie," she mumbled, still half delirious from her dream, "you startled me."

"I'm sorry about that, but you were tossing and turning muttering _'someone will betray you... turn traitor'_ repeatedly," Sophie said looking worried. "You shouldn't worry yourself about that silly prediction. It's a known fact that Divination isn't an exact science. The prediction will probably never happen. Mark my words."

Hearing these words comforted Andromeda greatly, though the tourniquet feeling still hadn't let up. She smiled thankfully at Sophie, who got the message and smiled back.

Andromeda sighed. She didn't feel like going back to sleep just yet as she wasn't feeling all too good. Instead, she pulled out her diary and began writing.

_October 18th, 1940,  
With the extra classes I'm taking this year, along with my regular classes, homework, and now Quidditch practice, I think I'm slowly beginning to go mad. Every night after dinner I head directly back to the common room and do the homework I've been assigned, but on certain nights I have to head to Quidditch practice. _

On those nights, no matter what time I get back to the common room, I'll try and finish my homework. Unless I'm too tired, then I'll try and do it in the morning before class begins... then the madness starts ALL OVER AGAIN!!!  
---

"Psst, Andromeda," Marcella whispered, nudging her friend in the shoulders.

Andromeda slowly opened her eyes. "Wha... wha's wrong?" she mumbled sleepily.

"We're in class!" whispered Marcella. Andromeda bolted right up from her slouched over position. Hearing these words set off a bomb inside her chest.

"No! Please tell me I wasn't sleeping in class!"

"You're lucky Professor Binns wasn't looking," Sophie added pointedly.

Andromeda rubbed her eyes. It wasn't like her to fall asleep in class, but with all the things pulling her in diffe! rent directions, she felt tired and worn out easily.

"Are you all right?" Sophie asked. 

Andromeda nodded and replied, "Did any of you happen to take any notes on what the class was about?"

Marcella showed her a piece of parchment where she had written down her notes.

Unfortunately, Professor Binns had noticed that Andromeda had fallen asleep. "Miss Riddle, I would like to see you after class," he said in his dull voice.  
She gulped as fear pitted itself in her stomach. How could she have been so stupid and fall asleep in class?!

Once History of Magic class was over with for the day, Andromeda stayed behind while the others, giving her inquisitive looks, left. Professor Binns glanced up from his notes on his desk and announced, "Miss Riddle, do you find my class that boring and dull that you must fall asleep during it?"

She shook her head no. "No sir," she began, "It's just... I'm just really tired. The extra work is catching up with me. I truly didn't mean t fall asleep..."

Professor Binns looked at Andromeda, then answered, "Come with me."

He led her out of the classroom and through the hall, up a flight of stairs and into a part of the castle she had only occasionally been to. Knocking on a wooden door, Binns lead her into a room which she had never seen before. Sitting in the middle of the room was a large desk with many strange objects on it. But it was something behind the desk that caught Andromeda's attention... _Professor Jamison! Dumbledore's temporary replacement!_

Surely she wasn't going to be expelled, was she? Nausea suddenly overtook her...  
Professor Jamison looked up from her desk with an amused look on her face. "May I help you two?"

"Professor, Miss Riddle was caught falling asleep in my class today," Professor Binns began. "She told me she was tired from all the extra work she is currently doing, and I believe she is also on your house's Quidditch team."

Andromeda's stomach began doing flip-flops. _Here it comes_, she thought. _He's going to have me booted off the team... or worse... expelled._

"I thought that since you're the Head of her house, maybe you could help her find a schedule to fit her needs. It would only seem fair, ma'am. She's the brightest student I've had in a very long time."

Andromeda's heart nearly stopped. He was... _saving_ her! Professor Jamison looked even more amused now.

"Certainly!" she said cheerfully. Professor Binns left the room as Professor Jamison pulled out a fresh piece of parchment, and she and Andromeda began working on a time schedule.

When she left about an hour later, she looked down at her new schedule and sighed. She couldn't help but wonder how Tom was doing it all. He also had extra classes on top of his regular ones and was probably still searching for that foolish Chamber of Secrets with his friends. And to top it all off, he was also a member of the Slytherin Quidditch team, too.

He, apparently, had better organizational skills than her...


	11. Chapter 11

_October 23rd, 1940,  
As I entered the Great Hall today, I was met with an unexpected quietness. On Saturday mornings, the Great Hall is usually noisy and filled with activity, but today it was the exact opposite. The only sound I heard as I made my way toward the Gryffindor table was the sound of people whispering._

I felt like I was at a funeral.  
---

She found a seat next to Minerva and sat down. Owl post had apparently come very early that day as a brown barn owl was already sitting on the table holding out Andromeda's copy of _The Daily Prophet._ After paying the owl, but before she unrolled her newspaper, she looked around at her fellow Gryffindors. Many Sixth and Seventh years were hovering around Abby as she looked at _The Daily Prophet._ All of them were wearing sad expressions on their faces.  
Before Andromeda opened her paper, Sophie and Marcella sat down next to her.

"I've never seen the Great Hall like this," Sophie commented. She looked over at the Hufflepuff table and saw a few of First year girls were weeping.

Andromeda opened her newspaper and gasped at the headline.

**"The daughter of the Minister of Magic missing"**  
_Sources have announced that the daughter of Minister of Magic, Mr. Antoni Goodspell, has been kidnapped. Reports have suggested that the kidnapping was executed by the Knights of Walpurgis, who were retaliating against the Ministry's new crackdown policy on Grindelwald and his Knights.  
Her mother, Muriel Goodspell, who was planning on visiting her daughter for the day, reported Celestyn Keara Goodspell, nineteen, missing on Thursday. No signs of forced entry were found._

"We hope that whoever has our daughter will bring her back to us safe and sound," a sobbing Mrs. Goodspell said to _**Daily Prophet**__ reporters._

Mr. Goodspell was unable to be reached for comment.

Andromeda, Sophie, and Marcella looked nervously at one another. Between the awful Muggle war that was going on and the current unrest in the wizarding world, it seemed, in Andromeda's eyes, that the world was simply falling apart.

_How could one world hold so much evilness?_

_October 31st, 1940,  
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that today I am officially a teenager, but the bad news concerns the whereabouts of the missing daughter of the Minister of Magic..._  
---

"Did you hear the news?" Abby asked Andromeda as she and her friends walked down the hallway to the Great Hall. Andromeda and her friends shook their head no.

"I just heard it from one of the Ravenclaw Prefects that Celestyn was found murdered. Apparently, someone used an Unforgivable Curse," Abby noted.

Andromeda, Sophie, and Marcella looked at each other. "What's an 'Unforgivable Curse?'" Andromeda asked.

Abby looked uncomfortable. "The first thing you must know is that the three Unforgivable Curses are completely and utterly banned from use by the Ministry. Anyone caught using them on another human will have his or her wand broken and be sent to Azkaban for life. Secondly, I only know what I learned about them in Defense Against the Dark class," Abby continued. "There are three curses: the Cruciatus Curse, which inflicts an unimaginable amount of pain on a person. The Imperius Curse can control a person entirely. And finally... Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. This was the one used on Celestyn."

"How were they able to determine for a fact that the killing curse _was_ actually used... besides the _obvious_ fact?" Andromeda asked.

"Well, there were no marks on her body," Abby answered. "The killing curse doesn't leave a mark on the body."

Upon entering the Great Hall, which was once again in a state of depression, Andromeda remembered to ask, "What's Azkaban?"

"It's a wizard's prison," replied Abby. "I hear it's an awful place. There are things there called _Dementors_ that can suck out your soul."

Once owl post had been delivered, Andromeda hurriedly opened _The Daily Prophet_ and saw that the Celestyn case was the main headline.

**"Missing daughter of Minster of Magic found"**  
_In a sad twist of events, Celestyn Goodspell, daughter of Minister Antoni Goodspell, was found murdered last night in an abandoned Muggle store south of London. After receiving an anonymous tip, special Ministry wizards went to the abandoned store where they found the body of nineteen-year-old Celestyn.  
"We can't give out too much information at this point," Rachel Abbott said. "But we can confirm that the cause of death was by use of an Unforgivable Curse."  
__**The Daily Prophet**__ will continue to bring up-to-the-second coverage as this story continues to unfold._

Andromeda set the paper down and looked at her friends, who were sitting on either side of her. Neither of them said anything; they were in just as much shock as she was.

_November 6th, 1940,  
Tonight is our first Quidditch match of the year. We're playing against Hufflepuff. Abby told me that the Hufflepuff team has a new captain, Henry Diggory. He's a fourth year, and as Maria Bell has stated from watching (or spying) them practice throughout the week, Henry is a formidable opponent..._  
---

"... but he's _really_ nice... and _cute_," Maria Bell announced, giggling. Carl Potter and Aaron Wood rolled their eyes and snorted.

The entire Gryffindor team was huddled in the locker room before their game against Hufflepuff, listening to Maria who had been telling them about Hufflepuff's new captain.

"Well, we'll see how good he is against the all-powerful Gryffindors," Abby replied seriously as she struggled to hide a smile on her face. "Now let's go out there and win!"

The team clapped their hands together and shouted, "Rah! Rah! Gryffindor!" as they made their way out to the field amid loud applause.

"Let's be sure to have a friendly game tonight," Professor Luchtig said as Abby and Henry shook hands. Andromeda looked over at the new Hufflepuff captain and sighed as her heart skipped a couple of beats. She couldn't help but think that he was the cutest boy she had ever seen. But before she could ponder this new feeling that came over her, Professor Luchtig had released the balls, and she had to push Henry out of her mind.

"Hufflepuff has the Quaffle, the three Gryffindor Chasers, Abby, Maria, and Andromeda are om hot pursuit," Patrick Jones announced. "Hufflepuff is still in possession of the Quaffle, but Chaser Estella Tikhonov has thrown it to her teammates in order to escape the grasps of the Gryffindor Three."

Abby, Maria, and Andromeda closed in on Estella, forcing her to throw the Quaffle to one of her teammates, but Abby intercepted it and high tailed it back to the other end of the field to score.

"Gryffindor is the first to score. They're leading ten to zero."

Much of the game continued following the same aspect: Gryffindor would score, and then Hufflepuff would even it out. Cute Henry Diggory turned out to be quite the fierce player. For much of the game, Andromeda couldn't help but find herself gazing at him. He had the most beautiful blue eyes, and the way his brown hair fell over his face... it was too much. He was absolutely gorgeous! Thoughts about whether he had a girlfriend or not starting filling her head... until Abby's voice broke her euphoria.

"Earth to Andromeda!" she yelled. "Let's focus on the game, please!"

"Sorry." Andromeda turned a few shades of red much deeper than her Quidditch robe.

For rest of the game, Andromeda was able to shut Henry out of her mind, but occasionally she would catch herself staring at him. The game eventually ended with Gryffindor winning, but only by a small margin. Hufflepuff had put up a heck of a fight.

Just as the Gryffindor team was exiting the field, someone called out to Andromeda... it was Henry Diggory!

She turned around, but her foot wouldn't cooperate and swung out to the side, causing her to fall to the ground with a loud **thump!**  
Being the perfect gentleman he was, Henry reached down and helped up a profusely blushing Andromeda.

"You, uh, played really well tonight," he said, avoiding her face and keeping his gaze at his shoes. Andromeda couldn't bring herself to look at him either. It was _much_ too embarrassing.

_I'm such a klutz!_

Unfortunately, her ability to speak slipped from her as fast as her foot had done. She was feeling very uncomfortable at that moment, and a strong sense of just how sweaty and dirty she must've been gnawed at her.

_I must look horrible._

"You... you are great! I mean that you _played_ great, and... and..."

_Ugh, I probably sound like a MORON!_

At that moment, someone from the Hufflepuff team called out to Henry.   
"I'd better be going," he mumbled, finally meeting her eyes. He gave her a small wink and went to rejoin his teammates, leaving Andromeda feeling dumbstruck and totally angry with herself. 

_How stupid am I? I sounded like a fool!_

As she continued to mentally berate herself, an arm went around her and she looked up into Abby's smiling face.

"I think someone likes you!" she giggled, a huge grin appearing on her face. If Andromeda thought she had turned a deep shade of red before, it was nothing compared to now.

_He likes ME!_ she thought. _Insignificant, not very attractive... ME!_

Contributing to her already reddening face, a huge smile slowly wormed its way onto her.  
Just as if someone had enchanted her with a levitating charm, she felt like she floated on air back to the Gryffindor common room.

_November 13th, 1940,  
I just received two of the biggest surprises in my life, and they both happened within the same day..._  
---

"Miss Riddle, why aren't you getting ready to head to Hogsmeade with your brother and fellow students?" Professor Jamison asked after breakfast that day.

"Pardon me?" she asked.

"Didn't your brother tell you? At the end of last year's term, Dumbledore gave him two permission slips for you and him to have signed, allowing you to go to Hogsmeade. He had gotten them signed and returned to me almost as soon as he set foot back here again for this term."

Andromeda looked across the Great Hall and over at her brother who was talking animatedly to Carrey and Murdoch. He must have sensed her looking at him because he stopped and looked up. For the briefest of moments, their eyes met.

_That's so sweet of him_, she thought, beaming.

"That's wonderful news!" Marcella exclaimed. The girls headed back in the Gryffindor common room, bundling up for their trek to Hogsmeade. "We're so glad you could come with us. It'd be really boring without you."

"You're gonna love Hogsmeade!" Sophie added. "My parents remember going there when they were at Hogwarts, and they said it's absolutely amazing."

"That was really sweet of Tom to do that for you," Marcella added.

As they finished putting on their gloves and made sure their scarves were coving their necks, they got ready to leave the common room when they heard a booming voice calling out from the top of the stairs.

"Where yeh goin'? Everyone's bin leavin' today." A giant student appeared at the top of the stairs leading to the boys' dormitories.

"Hello, Hagrid," Andromeda replied. "We're heading to Hogsmeade today."

"What's Hogsmeade?"

"It's a wizarding village," Sophie piped up.

"Oh. I wish if I could go," he replied gruffly, with a hint of wistfulness clearly evident in his voice.

"We're really sorry Hagrid, but going to Hogsmeade is only allowed to students in third year and up," Sophie continued.

"Oh, well, have fun then."

The girls knew that if Hagrid was even old enough to go, they wouldn't have allowed him to go anyway. Poor Hagrid had gotten into serious trouble the other day as Professor Panes, the Potions teacher, had caught Hagrid getting into an intense argument with two Seventh year students.

Of course, the punishment came out very one-sided as Professor Panes was also the head of Slytherin house and the two seventh year students were also from Slytherin. The professor believed the "we were just innocent bystanders" story that those two students fed him, and Hagrid took the entire blame for causing trouble. He was forbidden to leave the Gryffindor common room, except for classes and meals, and Gryffindor had been docked twenty points.

Even in the short time Andromeda and her friends knew Hagrid, they knew he wasn't the type to just pick fights with anyone. It was the unfortunate reality that Hagrid was so different from the rest of the students that he spent most of his time trying to defend himself against those who took it upon themselves to make fun of his differences.

Andromeda looked up into his dark eyes, waved good-bye to him, and ran back down to the Great Hall where Professor Jamison was checking off the names of the students who would be going to Hogsmeade that day.

"Bell, Maria?"

"Here!"

"Black, Murdoch? Boot, Daniel?"

"Here!" they both yelled.

Andromeda, Marcella, and Sophie stood around with the other students, waiting for their names to be called so they could leave the castle. While they were waiting, Tom made his way over to Andromeda. He looked rather bored and impatient.

"It slipped my mind, I guess," he mumbled rather dully, answering the question that had been plaguing Andromeda's head.

"You... how... how did you get Madam Westyn to sign?" she asked warily. "You didn't... _hex_ her did you? You know that they do not allow us to use magic."

Tom looked away rather uncomfortably, wringing his hands. Andromeda shook her head in disbelief. _How exactly __**did**__ he get her to sign it?_

"You know you can't do magic away from school —" she began, but Tom waived his hands rather impatiently and cut her off in mid-sentence.

"I _didn't_ use magic," he hissed.

"Well then, how did you —" (she trailed off as she watched the familiar form of Henry Diggory make his way through the crowd of students to where she was standing) "— make her sign," she managed to finish. Tom turned around and looked up at Henry.

"You're that Quidditch player everyone was talking about the other night."  
Henry looked rather embarrassed.

"So, um, what brings _you_ here?" Tom continued, eyeing Henry with a peculiar glower.

"I was going to ask Andromeda if she'd like to walk with me to Hogsmeade."

Right at that moment, Andromeda thought her heart had stopped beating completely. The blood froze in her veins...

"You want to ask my sister... _out_?" Tom squeaked, barely croaking out the words, and appeared rather sickened at the very idea. Henry simply nodded.  
Andromeda, on the other hand, wasn't too sure what to say as her stomach was suddenly doing somersaults and banging around her innards. On one hand, Tom was being an enormous prat, but Henry on the other hand... she sighed inwardly. He wanted to ask her out on a date! So she _hadn't_ made a complete fool of herself that night at the Quidditch game. Completely giddy, she felt like dancing around the Great Hall and kissing everyone in sight. However, she didn't want to make a fool of herself (nor did she really want to kiss Carrey or Murdoch), so she abstained and kept her feet securely on the ground while her heart did all the dancing inside her chest.

Henry extended his hand toward Andromeda and she took it. "Would your brother and friends like to come along, too?" he asked politely.

Tom flat out refused, muttering something to the effect of he wouldn't be caught dead going with a "Dufferpuff" and mumbled he was planning on going with the Slytherins instead. Marcella and Sophie, though, both accepted his offer to come along.

"Prewett, Sophie? Thomas, Marcella?"

"Here!" yelled Sophie.

"That's us! Oh, I can't wait! Let's go!" squealed Marcella, apparently bursting with excitement.

"Riddle, Andromeda? Riddle, Thomas?"

As they walked off ready to leave the Great Hall, Andromeda felt a bizarre sensation on the back of her head. It felt almost as if she were being stared at. Turning around briefly, she saw Tom watching her. Their eyes met, and and they looked at one another for an entire minute. His green eyes didn't blink once. Andromeda's head felt like someone was trying to force his way inside, and she felt a sharp throbbing sensation in her temples. The moment she turned away from him, the feeling had subsided.

"Hogsmeade has a great joke shop called Zonko's," Henry stated, breaking Andromeda out of her state of confusion. "Then there's the Honeydukes shop. They sell all sorts of smashing things there like ice mice and pepper imps..."

_November 18th, 1940,  
We received a surprise after our Defense Against the Dark Arts class today..._  
---

"Class, I'd like to speak with you all for a moment, if I may," Professor Williams told his students at the end class that day. "In light of, uh... recent worldly events, Hogwarts will now be starting a new Defense Club. It will, or course, be open to any student who wishes to join."

The idea, which was intriguing to the students, caused a mild uproar in class. Marcella raised her hand an asked, "What will we do in the Club?"

"In the Club, you will have the chance to practice the spells you've learned here in class and be able to learn some new ones as well."

Her interest already through the roof, it was Andromeda's turn to raise her hand. "When will this begin?"

"This coming Tuesday. It will take place in the Great Hall after dinner."

Professor Williams looked at his class before continuing. "Beginning next semester, we'll also begin a Defense Competition. You'll be able to take what you've learned and go head-to-head with other students to earn points. Then at the end of the semester, we'll name four students from each house who have the most points. Those four students will go head-to-head against each other. Only one student out of the whole school will be victorious and earn two-hundred and fifty points for his or her House."

Murmurs traveled through the crowd. It was an exciting prospect, and many of them were already picturing themselves as victorious. Andromeda couldn't help but find herself sharing that elusive fantasy.

"It definitely sounds interesting," she noted as they walked out of their Defense class.

"You should really think about entering the competition, Andromeda. You learn things incredibly fast. Besides," Sophie chuckled, "I would enjoy seeing a Gryffindor win it the very first time it's held."

_November 20th, 1940,  
There still has been no sign of Professor Dumbledore. Everyone in Gryffindor house is beginning to worry. We've asked the teachers to give us some sort of information of any kind regarding his whereabouts, but nobody will tell us anything._  
---

"Maybe he got lost wherever it was he was going?"

"What if he's been hurt?"

"Maybe he's been captured by Grindelwald!"

"Oh, I hope not! That would be just awful!"

As Dumbledore hadn't been seen, nor heard from, for the last few months, rumors were spreading around the Great Hall like a raging wildfire. Just as Andromeda and her friends made their way to the Gryffindor table, they could hear snippets of conversations as they passed by the students.

"Poor old Dumbles probably got himself killed."

The three friends turned around to see who had said such an awful thing. They weren't surprised to find that it was none other than Carrey Malfoy, who was wearing a smug look upon his face.

"Ugh! There goes Carrey again, spewing his proverbial hate," Andromeda retorted, rolling her eyes as Sophie and Marcella snickered behind their hands.

"Hey guys! Over here!" Abby was yelling for Andromeda and her friends to come over to the Gryffindor table at once, and she had a deeply worried look on her face.

"What's wrong Abby?" Sophie questioned. Abby held up the front section of _The Daily Prophet_.

**"All-out battle with Grindelwald leaves both sides exceptionally decreased"**  
_After a surprise attack on Grindelwald and his Knights of Walpurgis earlier last week, both sides are finding themselves with a reduced number of fighters, as reported to __**The Daily Prophet**__.  
Many people have been confirmed dead, and many more are injured. One of the injured was Hogwarts Professor Albus Dumbledore, who is suffering from a badly broken nose and other combat injuries, including a nasty hex to his right leg._

Nobody said anything while reading it they were too much in shock to even breathe normally.

_It was Dumbledore who spearheaded the initiative to strike against Grindelwald and the Knights.  
A __**Daily Prophet**__ reporter headed over to St. Mungo's for a quick interview with him but was turned away by the healers in charge.  
__**The Daily Prophet**__ did learn through its sources that they will release Dumbledore from St. Mungo's within the coming week or so to return to his teaching position at Hogwarts._

Everyone at the table looked absolutely horrified. "So that's where he went," muttered Sophie, completely taken aback. Andromeda glanced over at Marcella who still had her hands clasped tightly over her mouth.

"At least we know he's okay... and _alive_," Abby said quietly as she gently folded the paper back and continued reading the article. Andromeda and her friends slid onto the bench, although none of them felt hungry anymore.

"We should do something nice for him when he comes back," Sophie commented quietly, poking her eggs absentmindedly with her fork.

"Like what?" Marcella asked, with the same air of distraction in her voice.

"I don't know. I haven't thought that far in advance," Sophie admitted.

"What if we made a banner? Something that says 'Welcome back, Professor Dumbledore' and everyone in Gryffindor could sign it?" Andromeda asked.  
Sophie and Marcella thought hard about it.

"That's really a good idea. We should ask Abby and the other Gryffindors to help with planning it," Sophie replied, smiling.

After breakfast, Andromeda and her friends decided to head back to the Gryffindor common room and pitch her idea to the rest of their house mates.  
Standing on the long table where many other students were either working or goofing off, she cleared her throat loudly and began to speak. With all eyes were upon her, Andromeda began to feel a bit nervous. The blood was rushing to her face, which she guessed, must have been turning a brilliant crimson color, but she remained calm and tried to force the staring eyes out of her mind.

"I'm sure most, if not all of you, have read this morning's _Daily Prophet._" Echos of 'yeah' went through the common room. Andromeda cleared her throat again and continued.  
"After reading it, my friends thought we should do something nice for Professor Dumbledore when he returns. I suggested making a banner, but seeing as how he _is_ the head of our house, my friend Sophie suggested this should be a collaborative project among all the Gryffindors."

Everybody in the common room began to cheer. Andromeda's heart began to race excitedly. The hot flush she felt in her face began to subside. A chorus of voices began speaking all at once.

"What should we do?"

"I like the banner idea!"

"How about a mural instead?"

Andromeda smiled an ear-wide grin. Whatever her and her fellow Gryffindors decided upon, she knew it would be absolutely wonderful and the perfect surprise.

_November 21st, 1940,  
'Project Dumbledore' has begun, and after much discussion, we agreed upon that a banner would be the best course of action to take. We decided to make a huge one so everyone would have enough room to write a message. It's so large, it spans from one end of the common room to the other._  
---

"Order, people! ORDER!" Abby yelled over the chaos that had suddenly overtaken the Gryffindor common room. It was a cold Sunday afternoon, and the common room was exceptionally busy that day, which was why the girls' had enlisted Abby to help with overseeing the project. It was a madhouse, and Abby couldn't stand to watch such disorder continue any longer.

"ORDER!" she shouted again, only louder this time. Thankfully it worked as some of the chaos began to slow down in the common room.  
Everywhere one went, students were scurrying about working on the banner for Project Dumbledore. This was turning out to be a much bigger project than Andromeda had ever expected. While Abby was acting as crowd control, Andromeda, Sophie, and Marcella worked diligently on penning 'Welcome Back, Dumbledore!' at the center of the banner.

"There!" they announced proudly once it had been finished, some time much later. Thoroughly exhausted, they took a step back so they could get a better look at it. Andromeda sincerely hoped it looked all right as she had tried to make sure that they wrote legibly and didn't drip any excess paint from the paintbrushes onto the white canvas. They wanted to make sure it looked absolutely perfect.

"It looks wonderful!" Sophie exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly.

"I'm sure Dumbledore would feel really honored to see it," added Marcella. Andromeda smiled broadly.

"I sincerely hope so," she replied.

_November 24th, 1940,  
Dumbledore is back at Hogwarts again! He arrived shortly before dinnertime tonight. Though he seemed very weak, he was able to give a small speech before dinner._  
---

"I... I must say, I feel very honored to be here again," Dumbledore began slowly. He gazed around the Great Hall, taking in the site of the students before proceeding on.  
"As probably most of you already know from reading _The Daily Prophet_, I was leading an opposition against Grindelwald and the Knights of Walpurgis."

Some of the Slytherins began snorting quietly as he continued.

"Although we weren't exactly successful, we have gained an advantage over them."

Applause thundered from the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff tables The Slytherins halfheartedly applauded. A few merely frowned and scoffed.

_How inconsiderate of them_, she thought scathingly. Leading a battle against the most evil wizard who ever lived must have been a positively gruesome. Thinking about the horrors of what he must've seen turned her blood cold. Looking over at the Slytherin table, she noticed Tom slitting his throat with his finger and nodding his head over at Dumbledore. His eyes looked to be teary as he continued to ridicule the professor's speech. Andromeda wondered what was so funny, as this was truly no laughing matter.

_January 16th, 1941,  
It has been an exceedingly lengthy time since I last wrote. I just haven't had the time or energy with all the extra work and whatnot from following Professor Jamison's homework schedule._

From the last time I wrote, so many things have happened here. Henry and I are officially dating, so to speak.

In Quidditch, things have not been going too easily for the Gryffindor team. We lost a game earlier this month to Ravenclaw, and we were almost facing elimination. Luckily, Hufflepuff pulled an upset win over Slytherin; so Gryffindor is back in the chase -- although we have to win our remaining games if we want to defend our title.

The new Defense club has proved to be the most difficult thing I've done so far, as I must constantly memorize new defense spells and stuff. And just last week they commenced the new Defense competition. I was one of a few Gryffindors to sign up for it. Sophie and Marcella decided against joining it, saying they didn't want to have to compete against me.

Amazingly, Tom has joined the Defense club as well. I remain hopeful that we won't have to compete against each other.  
Speaking of Tom, he gave us all quite a scare back in December. He passed out one day in the middle of Herbology class and was taken to the infirmary by the professor.

When he awoke two days later, he seemed greatly weakened by it... Whatever it was, it must be really serious as he's been in the infirmary a month now...  
---

It had been a very cold and snowy December morning when Andromeda headed to the infirmary to visit her ill brother. Three days prior to her visit, he had passed out in Professor Wymann's Herbology class. Sophie and Marcella had also visited Tom, but they thought it be best for Andromeda to go alone this time when visiting her brother.

_Knock, knock_. Footsteps sounded and Michellina Agave opened the doors to the infirmary.

"Hello Andromeda," she addressed, "your brother is resting now, but you can come in." She held the door open, and Andromeda walked through. "Please try and keep the noise to a minimum," Michellina added as she led Andromeda over to a bed where the young boy slept. Andromeda pulled up a chair to the bed and sat down.

"Tom," she whispered, "I'm so relieved you're all right. I was so worried that something really terrible had happened."

Her words didn't wake him, nor did they even make him stir. He was in such a deep sleep that if it weren't for the occasional rise and fall of his chest, Andromeda would have thought him to be dead.

Sitting and watching him, she didn't want to leave. Sighing, her gaze fell upon the bedside table where flowers and get-well cards sat. Sophie and Marcella had made a beautiful get-well card and had situated it adjacent to his bed the other day. There were other cards there, as well, mostly from his house mates. One card in particular was from her boyfriend Henry. A small smile and a warm sensation went through her when she saw it. It was a testament to the kind of person Henry was. Nice, considerate, and really sweet.

The minutes expired, and eventually she wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there, but it seemed as though an eternity had passed.  
Feeling it was time to leave, she got up slowly from her seat and gave one last look at her brother. Tom snorted and rolled over to his side. Andromeda breathed a sigh of relief as she had worried for a moment that she had awakened him.

Quietly backing up as she prepared to leave, something next to Tom caught her attention: He was lying on a small green and silver book. As far as she knew, Tom didn't own a journal, so this perplexed her quite a bit.

Andromeda gritted her teeth and quickly looked around the infirmary. Michellina was busy in her office and there was nobody else around... Thoughts were swirling around her head, debating whether to glance inside the journal or not...

_I shouldn't. It just wouldn't be right._

Just one quick glance couldn't hurt.

But if it is his journal, I have no right reading it.

You're his sister. What possibly could he write that you don't already know?

Ugh, decisions, decisions...

After debating for a few more seconds, and severely biting her lip, she finally gave in and decided that one teensy-weensy, insignificant little look wasn't going to hurt, especially if Tom never found out.

_What he doesn't know can't kill him..._

Delicately pulling the book out from underneath him, she silently sat back down on the chair and cracked opened his journal.

_"December 15th,  
I've been in the infirmary for two whole days now. I must say that it is very boring here. I could scream bloody murder. The only thing I have to pass the time is writing in this small journal that Stephane brought for me._

Everyone seems to think I've been over working myself, but nothing could be further from the truth. I've been having these "attacks" quite frequently, but none have been as severe as this one. Generally, it only happens at night while I am sleeping, but this time it happened while I was awake, and in the middle of class.

During my episodes, I find myself encircled in a murky shadow... I hear a soft hiss... like from a snake... a voice unlike any other I've ever heard before. It's harsh and cold and it keeps telling me I'm to be his successor. Two blood-red, luminescent eyes appear in the darkness before I wake.

I do not wish to tell anyone about my onsets, they'd most likely think I was mad, especially Andromeda. She'd probably tell her Dufferpuff boyfriend, who would probably feel the same way, and word travels fast here in the school.

I have strong suspicions on who's doing it. I think it's Grindelwald who's been possessing me."

Andromeda dropped the book as if it were suddenly burning her hands. In a state of mild delirium, she watched it as it fell to the floor with a soft _thump_.

_Grindelwald. He's possessing my brother._

Andromeda looked wide-eyed at the diary on the floor, almost as if she were waiting for it to explode or something. Checking to make sure no one was around after all that, she gingerly picked it up, set it on the night stand, and dashed out of the infirmary... her mind racing with what she just read.

_Why would Grindelwald possess Tom? Why him?_

Andromeda knew she couldn't talk to Tom about it. If she told, then he would know she read his journal. She wanted so badly to talk to him and tell him that he wasn't the only one having these horrible dreams. Secretly, she wished she could have told him all about the frightening dreams she'd had, which now that she thought about it, must've been Grindelwald's work, too.

Making it safely back to the common room and into the girls dormitories, she collapsed on her bed and cried for hours.


	12. Chapter 12

_January 18th, 1941,  
Right now we're preparing for our Defense club. The teachers have moved all the tables in the Great Hall, and they have put a long platform in their place..._  
---

"Today we will learn how to disarm our opponents by using the Expelliarmus spell," Professor Williams announced.

"Miss Riddle, Miss Tikhonov, would you two please come up?"

Andromeda and another girl about her age with reddish-brown hair climbed up onto the platform.

"Now remember what we practiced on our last lesson: bow to your opponent, then raise your wand to your side," Professor Williams instructed. Andromeda and Estell followed the professor's instructions and then, slowly raising their wands into the air, walked away with their backs toward one another.

"Now remember, we're only _disarming_, nothing else," Professor Williams reminded.

Andromeda raised her wand, but before Estella could react against it, she yelled, "Expelliarmus!" Estella's wand flew straight out her hand and into the air as applause filled the Great Hall.

"Very good, Miss Riddle," congratulated Professor Williams, as he motioned for Andromeda and Estella to prepare to practice the disarming spell a second time.

"Try it again, and most importantly, try _not_ to procrastinate. Your opponent will gain the advantage over you if you do."

Estella and Andromeda raised their wands again. Estella opened her mouth, "_Expelliar—_"

"_Expelliarmus_!" Andromeda shouted. As it had done before, Estella's wand shot out of her hand and into a complete arc. Her face flustered at having been beaten for a second time.

"First-rate, Miss Riddle," Professor Williams proclaimed as Andromeda hopped off the table to rejoin her cheering friends.

"That was so amazing!" Sophie cried.

The minutes slipped by, and soon Andromeda heard Professor Williams calling her brother to join them on the platform.

"Let's see if you're as good as your sister," he said.

"We shall see, sir, if I am _better_ than her."

Tom got up onto the platform and watched as his opponent joined him. Off from the distance, Tom's opponent looked vaguely familiar... _Oh no! It's Henry!_

"Mr. Diggory, Mr. Riddle, we're merely exercising our disarming spell and nothing more, all right?" Professor Williams told them. Tom and Henry both nodded their heads. "On the count of three, then... one... two... three!"

Henry and Tom bowed toward one another and began to walk away. Tom looked silently over his shoulder at Henry who had his back toward him. A look of absolute determination spread across his face. Slowly he turned around on the balls of his feet to face Henry, whom in Tom's opinion was making a pitiful attempt at trying to look intimidating. He raised his wand... Henry did the same.

_Oh! I can't watch!_ Andromeda covered her eyes so she didn't have to see her brother and her boyfriend square off against one another, even if it was only a simple disarming spell. A part of her wanted to cheer for Henry, but the other side was rooting for Tom.

"_Expelliarmus_!" She looked up and saw Tom with his wand raised high and Henry's wand flying five feet in the air.

"Outstanding work there, Mr. Riddle!"

After a second outing, which produced the same results, a laughing Tom rejoined the Slytherins who were cheering and patting him on the back. Tom looked back at Henry and shouted, "You're not as bad as people say —" (Henry began to blush, thinking he was receiving a compliment from a Slytherin) "— you're _worse_!"

Tom's gibe sent the Slytherins into fits of laughter.

_February 7th, 1941,  
Something truly bizarre happened to me in Divination class today..._.  
---

Professor Sanderson was giving a boring lecture to the students on the importance of the position of Venus in conjunction to Mars in the wintertime. Andromeda was finding it hard to keep awake and listen to the drivel. Resting her head on her chin, her eyelids felt like they had weights pulling them down. They seemed to get heavier eavier and heavier... Listening to the lecture was like being under the influence of a strong tranquilizer...

_No_, she sighed inwardly. _I... I must stay... yawn... awake._ A moment later she heard a peculiar voice, and although the voice was exceptionally faint, she could still make out bits and pieces of what it was saying, and it _wasn't_ Professor Sanderson...

"— will rise above, to destroy... will rise..." The room she was in suddenly became dark and hazy. The strange voice began speaking to her in a foreign language.  
"— evolabit... destrere... evolabit..."

A shadowy image filled her head. Whatever it was, it was coming toward her with its pale hands extended outward.

"— evolabit... destrere... evolabit..." The voice seemed questionably familiar... it was _her_ own voice speaking these words!

"— evolabit... destrere... evolabit... Evolabit... destrere... evolabit..."

Andromeda kept repeating the words over and over again, no matter how hard she tried to stop. A malevolent, inhuman laughter filled the air around her as coldness swept through, giving her the feeling of being trapped underwater.

"Ser... servatis a periculum..."

The shadowy figure grew bigger and bigger as it came toward her. Frightened, she tried to more, but couldn't... her feet were confined to the ground.

"Servatis a maleficum..."

The words became louder, vibrating within the confines of her head. Her temples and her brain, painfully pounding, felt as if they were going to explode...

"Andromeda..." 

Something touched her shoulder... it was a hand... it was shaking her from the dream. Gasping for breath, she opened her eyes, unaware that she had even fallen asleep to begin with. Startled, she looked around to see the person who had touched her shoulder. It was Professor Sanderson. Sophie and Marcella were standing beside her, both looking pale; the rest of her classmates stared at her anxiously.

"Dearie, are you all right?" Professor Sanderson asked worriedly, pressing her palm to Andromeda's forehead. Andromeda mumbled something indistinguishable as her head was still throbbing madly.

"Miss Riddle, I did not know you could speak Latin."

"I -- I can't," she replied hoarsely, finding her voice as the pain in her head lessened.

"Really?" Professor Sanderson asked, quite shocked. "I may be a bit rusty, but you just said, in perfect Latin I might add, '_evolabit... destrere... evolabit_': 'will rise above, to destroy'." Loud murmurs rustled through the classroom. Professor Sanderson continued. "Do you know what else you were mumbling? '_Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum_', or in English, '_Save us from danger, save us from evil_'."

"What do you think you're getting at?" a student asked, wide-eyed and scared.

"What kind of game are you playing?" a second one enquired. The rest of the class began asking the same thing.

"QUIET!" bellowed Professor Sanderson. She turned to face Sophie and Marcella and said gently, "Would you two please take Andromeda to the infirmary?"

The girls nodded and together they helped Andromeda down from the Divination tower and into the infirmary.

"It looks to me like Miss Riddle is simply suffering from exhaustion," Michellina explained, after a thorough examination of Andromeda. "Just make sure she gets plenty of rest tonight."

That night, Andromeda and her friends went to be early as to follow the nurses' advice for plenty of relaxation. Unfortunately, Andromeda found it hard to fall asleep that night. She tried writing in her diary, which usually put her to sleep, but this time it proved useless.

"I give up," she sighed, slamming the book shut. _Maybe I could walk around or something..._

Pulling out her sweater and skirt, she slipped them on and then headed down to the common room. Although she'd be breaking many school rules by wandering around at night, she decided to risk it anyway. Stepping out of the portrait and into the cool night air, she stood in the desolate hallway and shivered. It was a still bit nippy at this time of night.

_Where do I want to wander off to?_ She decided to head to her left and the upper part of the castle. Having only been up there for Divination, she wanted to explore the rest of that portion of the castle.

Eventually she passed the staircase that lead to the Divination classroom; further down was another hallway. As she slowly made her way down the hall, she noticed there were many doors to either side of her. Opening one door, she saw it was only a broom closet. The next door she opened contained a bed.

_What an odd place for a bedroom_, she thought, raising an eyebrow. Closing the door, she approached a third. Quietly opening it, the door revealed a small, vacant room. She walked in and looked around. Nothing of any interested was there... except...

_This looks vaguely familiar_, she thought. What had piqued her interest was a mirror sitting in the middle of the room. She tried to think why it seemed so familiar to her, but nothing came to mind, when suddenly...

_Oh no!_ A horrible recollection struck her. That mirror... it was the same one she had seen more than two years ago in a nightmare she had. She still remembered that dream, and looking at the mirror was like reliving it. Reluctantly approaching the mirror, she stared intently at her reflection in case it should suddenly change like had in her nightmare. Andromeda focused solely on her own image, totally unaware of anything else.

_Nothing odd here_, she thought. Turning around to leave, she began to walk away, only stopping to take one last glance into the mirror. Rather than seeing her own image, she saw another image as well... an image of a young woman was standing next to her. Andromeda screamed and started to run out the door, but her foot slipped out from underneath her in her haste to leave, and she fell to the ground.

_Oomph._ Feeling as if the wind had been knocked out of her, she rubbed her stomach and slowly got off the ground and back onto her feet. Wobbling a little at first, she was able to regain her balance. Glancing back at the mirror, the woman was still there, smiling gently at Andromeda. The figure appeared kind, and Andromeda didn't feel threatened by her. Curiosity getting the better of her, she walked closer to the mirror and studied the image. The figure had compassionate, hazel eyes, and long, dark hair that was done up in a chignon. It amazed Andromeda how much she looked liked this woman.

"Am... am I _you_?" Andromeda asked quietly. The woman shook her head no. At that moment, Andromeda's heart literally stopped beating. A tight, clasping sensation clenched at her chest.

"Are... are you my mother?" she enquired, which this time, the woman smiled and nodded. This was all Andromeda could take. Tears started spilling from her eyes as she sat down in front of the mirror and cried. For all thirteen years of her life, Andromeda had always longed to see her mother and now, she finally had. Sitting and staring through her tear-soaked eyes at her beautiful mother, she seemed so much like a regal queen. But underneath her majestic appearance was an anguished aura.

_How Tom would have loved to see this._

Time slipped by and although she didn't want to, she knew she had to leave her mother behind. With a heavy heart, she got up from her spot on the ground and reluctantly started to walk out of the strange room. Before she left, she turned around for one last glance at her mother...

"Good-bye," she whispered softly.

Standing once again in the unoccupied hallway, she looked around to make sure no one was coming. Quietly she tiptoed back down the hallway and into a strange part of the castle.

_I could have sworn this was the way I had taken._

Andromeda looked around at the unfamiliar area and sighed. She was lost. As she thought back to try and remember if she had taken a wrong turn, she heard a voice coming. Her heart started racing as she looked for a place to hide.

_If the teachers catch me, I'd surely be punished._

"Ya not lost, are ye?" a strange voice asked. Andromeda nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Who... who said that?" she enquired. Looking up, she saw a squat knight riding a horse.

"I repeat, ya not lost, are ye?"

Andromeda nodded her head fervently. "I can't seem to find my way back to the Gryffindor common room."

"Young Missy, ya'll need to head back in the direction ya came and make a left instead of a right."

"Thank you," Andromeda sighed. Getting ready to leave, she heard something else now... _footsteps_! Noticing an alcove in the wall beside her, she decided to hide in it. As the footsteps got nearer, Andromeda crouched down further into the darkness and held her breath. The person making the footsteps quickly appeared, but it wasn't the teacher or caretaker that she was expecting; in fact, it was the last person she'd ever expect out at this time... her brother. His voice was filled with fearfulness, and he was talking to someone or something nearby. Quietly (and hastily) looking out from her hiding spot, she saw there was nobody else around him.

_Has he finally lost his mind_? she silently wondered.

Tom looked apprehensive as he continued the conversation with himself. "I swear, I don't know!"

"LIAR!" This voice speaking was malevolent and inhuman... and the same voice Andromeda had heard earlier that day in Divination. From her hiding spot, Andromeda took another look and could now see her brother clearly. His back was toward her and he faced a window that overlooked the grounds.

"Please... let me go...," he begged.

Andromeda didn't know what was going on. She wanted to help her brother, but subconsciously, something told her that whatever she did wouldn't be able to help him and that staying where she was would be wiser. Tom scrunched up his face and turned around to face Andromeda's darkened hiding spot. Though he was unable to see her, she could make out a small portion of him as her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness.

Slowly he began to open his eyes again, and when he did, Andromeda had to fight a strong urge to scream. Tom's normal green eyes were now gleaming blood-red.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the voice that emitted wasn't his voice... "LIAR! I KNOW YOU'RE DECEIVING ME! WHERE IS THE DAMN GIRL?!"

_Is that THING talking about me?_

Andromeda was frightened. Sitting in her spot, still and quiet, her breath quickened rapidly.

_Grindelwald._ That name popped into her head unexpectedly; she wasn't sure why she had even though of it just then.

_Go away... Go away._ Closing her eyes, she prayed that whatever was possessing her brother, be it Grindelwald or not, would leave them both alone.

"I KNOW SHE IS AROUND HERE! I CAN SMELL HER!"

Andromeda held her breath and brought her knees up to her chest. The footsteps eventually faded away into the distance, and she knew that her brother and Grindelwald were gone now. Slowly getting up, she quietly tiptoed out of her hiding spot. Her breath still not returned to normal, she set out for to the Gryffindor common room.

She walked quietly through the hallway leading to the Gryffindor common room reliving the incidents of the day: Hearing that strange voice in Divination class, seeing her mother for the first time in her life, and watching her brother being possessed by Grindelwald.

It was so quiet she could hear her heart beating a mile a minute, and her breath came in short, slow gasps. The quietness proved to be relaxing for her currently unnerved state, and the absolutely last thing she needed at that point was the loud hissing sound that emitted from behind her. Briskly turning around, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the darkened hallway.

_I'm just a bit jumpy... my mind is merely playing tricks on me, that's all._ No matter how hard she tried, there was no convincing herself otherwise.

Continuing walking onwards, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, hearing an ear-piercing scream coming from somewhere within the depths of the castle. The sound was traveling fast; it sounded like it was coming closer... The scream became louder, almost as if it were now coming from directly behind her...

That was all the incentive she needed to break the speed barrier back to the Gryffindor common room, running until she was safely inside and in the girls dormitories.

_February 12th, 1941,  
I went to see Professor Dumbledore today. I had to ask him a few things that have been on my mind since that awful night..._  
---

"What do you wish to talk to me about?" Dumbledore asked, shifting some papers aside on his desk. Andromeda had arrived in his office before lunchtime and had insisted on talking to him. Sitting in a chair, she asked, while avoiding eye contact with him, "Is... is it possible... that... that _Grindelwald_ could attack the school?"

"What would make you ask such a thing?" he asked, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"I -- I was just wondering," she lied, keeping her head down.

"Well," Dumbledore began, "Grindelwald is quite a powerful wizard, but not so powerful that he could attack the school. Hogwarts has many charms upon it that prevent someone like Grindelwald from attacking it."

"What about... _possessing_ anyone," she asked, still not looking in Dumbledore's eyes.

"Yes, he's been known to possess people."

"What about _in_ the school?"

"It's quite possible, but what would he have to gain from possessing a student?"

"I don't know," Andromeda replied solemnly, her heart felt like it had plummeted into her stomach.

"Grindelwald only possesses people who are in the way of what he believes to be a _cleansing_ of those he feels are un-pure, or he possesses people to get them to do things for him."

Andromeda finally looked up. Dumbledore's face was kind although his bright blue eyes were staring at her intently. A shiver went down her spine.

"Why do you ask? Is there something you'd like to tell me?"

"N -- no," Andromeda lied again. Quickly bidding him good-bye, she got up and left his office before he could ask her any more questions that would force her to lie.

Upon entering the Great Hall for lunch, she felt like there was a black cloud hanging over her head, not even the prospect of the forthcoming Quidditch game that night could cheer her up.

_Grindelwald is possessing my brother, and I don't know why._

She felt so alone; there wasn't anybody she could tell. Who would actually believe her anyway?


End file.
